Naruto!
by ruto-kun-nata-chan
Summary: The child who was thought supposed to be dead returns to Konoha. Watch as how the child makes an identity for himself. Jinchuuriki-twin sister. Smart-Powerful-Kekkei Genkai-Naruto. Harem. Pairings undecided. Chapter 2 to 5 redone.
1. Chapter 1

**ENTER NARUTO?**

The trio of Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi and Sarutobi Asuma walked down one of the busy streets of Konoha as they made their way towards a bar for light drinks. A few minutes ago the trio had attended a meeting with the Lord Hokage along with other jounins who had a genin team. The meeting was to ask the jounin sensei whether they felt that their team was ready to compete in the chuunin selection examinations that were going to be commence in a week in Konoha. The trio had also entered their teams in this exam and it was the first time that their teams were going to be competing in such an important event. Of the three, two of the jounin's teams were rookie teams who had just graduated out of the academy a few months prior. Though normally such a thing would cause an uproar but the three rookie teams which had entered the examination this year were rather special because of the genins of the teams.

"So Asuma, where did Kurenai leave in such a hurry?" asked Kakashi as he lifted his head from the orange book as he eyed the jounin who was currently taking a drag of his cigarette.

Said jounin spoke after he exhaled the smoke which filled his lungs because of the drag, "Don't know! She was talking something about bonding between kunoichis…" suddenly he felt the eyes of both his companion on him "… don't ask as I myself still don't know what the bonding thing is."

Kakashi eyed the beard jounin for a couple of second and return to reading his book. Meanwhile the third jounin of the trio who had his black hair cut in bowl style went into deep thinking as he heard what his fellow jounin ha to say.

After a couple of minutes of deep thinking Gai finally spoke (or rather in his case shouted), "Yosh! We should follow the examples of our fellow youthful kunoichis and have a male-shinobi bonding time."

Asuma looked at Gai with a horror expression on his face as the cigarette fell of his open mouth as he spoke, "Gai, do you even know how… _weird_ that sounds!"

"Actually I think it is a brilliant idea!" spoke Kakashi without looking up from his book.

"WHAT!" Asuma shouted completely going wide eyed.

"Yosh! It seems you too are starting to think in a youthful way, my youthful rival!" shouted Gai to which Kakashi cringed.

Asuma finally calmed down as he lighted another cigarette taking a drag of it as he finally spoke after exhaling the smoke, "Kakashi, you can't be serious?"

Kakashi looked up from his book directly at Asuma as he spoke, "I have heard of this bonding session from Sakura… I don't know what exactly they are… but somehow it seemed to help her grow as a kunoichi…."

"Well now that you mention it… Ino won't stop about it", said Asuna as he remembered the times Ino would come from those bonding things and would be more eager for training or missions.

"Even my youthful student Tenten seems to love it", said Gai.

"So I thought it will somehow help our other students would also benefit from such male bonding…" said Kakashi to which the other two nodded "… though it would have done us better if we knew what they actually did."

"Why don't we just ask on of the kunoichis as I am certain they would tell us about what they do during the bonding sessions…" said Gai.

"If it was so simple, we would have already known by now what the girls did…" said Kakashi to which Gai looked a bit defeated.

"Say Kakashi, did you by any chance follow Gai's lead…?" asked Asuma getting the attention of both the fellow jounins on him as both looked at him with a questioning look.

"And what would that be!" asked Kakashi as he felt a little bit of sarcasm in Asuma's voice but found the said jounin's eyes not looking at him.

"Teach a young one your fashion sense!" said Asuma as his eyes met his fellow jounins and gestured them to look where he was looking.

Both Kakashi and Gai looked in the direction where Asuma was looking at and for their surprise found that his eyes were fixed on a boy. The boy in question was dressed in a light blue tracksuit with three orange stripes on his sleeves, a mesh undershirt, dark blue trousers and dark calf-length sandals (similar to Namikaze Minato's clothing during his academy years and genin days). As for the facial attributes, the boy had fair skin and had spiky hair which were strikingly similar to the Yondaime Hokage apart from they were red and the bangs framing either side of his face were not as long as the Yondaime's bangs. Apart from that the boy had bright blue eyes which again were similar to that of the Yondaime Hokage while his face below his eyes was hidden by a light blue mask he wore similar to that of Kakashi.

But both Kakashi and Gai knew that the question Asuma asked was just to give them a reason to focus on the red-haired boy. It was simple as both could tell with just a single glance that the boy was trained in the shinobi arts with the way the boy's body movements were. Also there was the fact that the boy was not wearing a hitai-te signifying he was not a shinobi of any of the hidden villages that were here to participate in the Chuunin selection exam as they didn't know of a boy of that description a student of the Konoha ninja academy.

All this warranted an investigation to know who exactly the boy was especially considering the amount of chakra the boy possessed. Neither of the three were sensory-nins but that didn't mean that they were incapable of sensing the amount of chakra one possessed as they were one of the elites of Konoha. So it was quite surprising for the trio to find a boy about the age of their students to possess chakra levels on par with them as there was only one among that age whose chakra levels was on par, no even greater then their level. But the said student was an exception as it was considered to be because of her being the **Jinchūriki****of****Kyūbi****no****Yōko**.

The trio decided that it was better to get to know who the boy was and the best way was a direct approach. But as they walked towards the boy, they watched him remove a piece of paper from his pocket which they recognized it to be the tourist map of Konoha when the boy unfolded it. They watched as the boy's eyes searched the map for something and when his found what he was searching for his eyes started to sparkle as they could feel him grinning behind his mask. Somehow they couldn't help but feel that the facial expression of the boy currently resembled that of the resident pervert of Konoha and they were not thinking of Kakashi.

They watch the boy take the right alley which led to one of Konoha's tourist spot which was rather favored by travelers who visited Konoha. But the jounin trio could tell that the boy didn't intend to visit the place for reasons a normal tourist would visit the place.

"Should we follow him?" asked Gai to his fellow jounins.

"Yes…" said Asuma as he took another drag of his cigarette "… but it would be wise to keep some distance from the boy."

Kakashi agreed but added his two cents as he said, "A rather long and safe distance, I would suggest."

The three jounins nodded to each other and vanished in smoke indicating the use of** Shunshin no jutsu**.

…_With the Super Pervert Jiraya…_

Currently hiding in one of the trees close to one of the most famous bath house of Konoha was Jiraya – member of Konoha's **Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja)** and the** Gama Sennin (Toad Sage)**. Jiraya was using a small telescope to spy on the kunoichis as he had heard that there was going to be some sort of gathering of them at the onsen. He had heard this as he heard a couple of young kunoichis talk about it as he had come to the village to meet his godchild before she entered the chuunin selection exams for the first time.

Normally despite his reputation as a super pervert, Jiraya avoided spying on the bath houses/onsen here in Konoha as the place consisted of three fearsome women who had some sort super senses to hunt him down as he would be busy in his research. One was his former teammate and just like him a member of the **Densetsu no Sannin **and famed as **Konoha no Namekuji Tsunade-hime (Konoha's Slug Princess Tsunade)** – Senju Tsunade and the other two being the wife and daughter of the current Hokage. But today was one of the days when he disregarded his inner voice which screamed him to stay away from the bath house as not only was there a gathering of kunoichis of various age but also Tsunade herself was going to be there. Thus even if Shinigami was to come to earth to take away his soul, he would fight the death god until he got the view of the wonderful, beautiful and gigantic breasts of Tsunade.

This spot and the telescope in his hands were giving him a great view of the onsen. Though Tsunade hadn't yet arrived at the bath house but still there were others like the likes of Yuuhi Kurenai, Mitarashi Anko, Uzuki Yuugao, Inuzuka Tsume and some others which he didn't recognize which made it worthwhile. Also there were other girls who were around the age of his godchild whom he just glanced once thinking that they would one day grow into beautiful kunoichis and nothing more.

Suddenly he felt an unknown but a powerful chakra signature close by him. His eyes traveled to the source of the chakra signature to find a red-haired boy around the age of his godchild crouched on the other branch of the tree. The said boy was holding a binocular to his eyes as he watched the same wonderful view which he was watching. Even with the mask hiding the remaining of the boy's facial features, Jiraya could tell that the boy sported a huge grin on his face. He decided to go confront the fellow pervert and also educate such a young one in the true art of perverts as he jumped next to the boy.

"Hello there, young one!" said Jiraya as he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder startling the boy as the boy turned his head quickly at Jiraya as the he tried to hide the binoculars behind him with a small fearful look.

Jiraya was completely taken back as he stared in the bright blue eyes of the boy which were so similar to his student an also shined with the same intensity. Now that Jiraya took a better look at the boy, he couldn't help but notice the startling similarities the boy had with his student. It was not just the eyes as the blonde wore an almost similar outfit like Minato when he was a genin and also his spiky hair was structured in the similar way as Minato apart from it being bright red and the he bangs framing either side of his face reached his ears and not his jaws.

"Say old man, you wouldn't be handing me to the girls down there, would you?" Jiraya heard the boy ask with a small bit of fear in his voice breaking him out of his thoughts.

"No, young one! I am not here to hand you to those beautiful ladies down there but rather I am here to teach you the art of perverts", said Jiraya.

But before he could say any further or hear the response of the boy, his instincts told him of the arrival of Tsunade in the onsen. He quickly used his telescope to spy on the onsen and as always his instincts about Tsunade didn't fail him. From his telescope he watched Tsunade enter the bath house along with the duo of mother and daughter and her apprentice covering their bodies with the bath towels. But the moment Tsunade had entered the bath house he lost interest in the girls and the women in the bath house as she was his sole focus. But before he could completely loose his senses viewing the naked beauty of Tsunade, he glanced at the boy next to him and found him to have followed his lead as he was also spying on the onsen with his binoculars. A smile appeared on Jiraya's face as he looked at the boy for a second as the boy would be a perfect apprentice to whom he could pass 'the true art of perverts' as none of his apprentice till date had turned into a pervert like him nor even closet perverts.

With that thought in mind, Jiraya returned his focus back on to spy at the onsen or rather Tsunade to be specific. From his telescope he watched as his former teammate remove the towel and stand there in her complete naked glory feeling the wind. A small trickle of blood left the nose of Jiraya as he looked at the girl he loved and still did in her complete glory. He watched as she entered the hot water and couldn't feel but think that the water that touched her body made her look more beautiful. His eyes then traveled to the most noticeable asset and he was certain that they had grown a few centimeters from the last time he had laid his eyes on them. But before he could bath all of his senses with the sight of the naked Tsunade he was interrupted by the voice of the boy next to him.

"Say old man, aren't you to old to be doing this?" Jiraya heard the boy ask.

Jiraya couldn't believe his ears at what the boy had just said, calling him – the great Jiraya old. It seemed the boy didn't recognize his greatness as of yet and it was time to teach the boy his greatness. He jumped from the branch in the clearing down below and gestured the boy to join him down in the clearing. He heard the boy mutter about stupid old men and their stupid ways before the boy unwillingly joined him in the clearing. It was time to teach the boy to respect his seniors and especially someone as great and awesome as him.

"Boy, do you even have a clue who you are calling old?" asked Jiraya.

Jiraya watched as the boy looked a him from head to toe and then saw his eyes widen which he concluded that the boy finally realized who he had called old and was going to apologize to him an admit his greatness.

"Nope…" the boy said to which Jiraya face faulted "… Who are you?"

Jiraya couldn't believe his luck as the boy seemed completely clueless to his greatness and to be a worse the boy was a fellow pervert and still didn't recognize his awesomeness.

"Alright, hold on!" said Jiraya as he summoned his most faithful of all summons or rather the only one who joined him in his awesomeness – Gama.

Jiraya now stood on top of Gama taking the traditional Kabuki pose along with Gama posing with him as he started with his awesome introduction.

"Thanks for asking! I am Mount Myōboku-Gama's holy master Sennin also known as **Gama-Sennin** and the member of Konoha's **Densetsu no Sannin**! I, Jiraya am the epitome of manliness! When you are someone like me, you'll only have to flash the sexiness to have women fall at your feet!"

Jiraya was certainly liked seeing the shocked look of the boy when he started with his introduction but inwardly frowned when the boy's shocked face turned into a look of horror. He didn't want to scare the boy as he intended to take the boy as an apprentice who would follow his legacy becoming the second coming of the Super Pervert Jiraya. He decided to assure the boy that there was nothing to be scared off but before he could assure the boy, he saw the boy's face morph from the scared look into a bored and what-the look.

"So tell me Jiraya-sama, why are we doing this _again_?" the boy asked with emphasis on the word 'again'.

'What does he mean again!' thought Jiraya as by now Gama had returned back to the village of toads.

But before he could ask the boy what he meant, he heard the snapping of knuckles as his danger senses went on an all time high. Jiraya's head turned in a mechanical fashion towards his right and the sight that he saw drained all the colour of his face. Standing in front of him were all the kunoichis who just moments ago occupied the onsen as their bodies were covered by towels and their face in an expression which said 'you-are-dead'. But that was what not caused his features to pale as it was the trio who were in front of all the kunoichis. The trio consisted of his former teammate Tsunade who was currently cracking her knuckles to deliver to him her super punches, the wife of his student whose bright red hair was flowing wildly around indicating why she was named the **Akai Chishio no Habanero (Red Hot-Blooded Habanero)** and last but not the least was his godchild who was shaking her head and muttering of how her O-jii-san never learned lessons.

"So Jiraya, I hear that you are the epitome of manliness and women fall at your feet because of you manly charms…" said Tsunade in a sweet voice which sent chills down his spine.

"Now, now, Tsunade, you know I was just…" Jiraya tried to put forth his defense but was interrupted by Tsunade.

"Shut up, Jiraya! But do tell me who the boy is? Your accomplice in the crime…" said Tsunade still retaining the sweet tone in her voice.

But before Jiraya could tell her who the boy was and how he ha come across the boy, the boy spoke for himself.

"I am no accomplice of Jiraya-sama in th… this crime", shouted the boy as he turned towards the group of kunoichis with a red face.

Jiraya couldn't again believe that the boy called such a delicate art which even he was practicing a crime. Also he didn't miss the small gasps that left the mouth of Tsunade and Kushina as he turned towards them to find them staring at the boy with wide eyes. He also noticed that they were not the only ones who looked shocked as other kunoichis/women who were around the age of Kushina and were friends with her were also staring at the boy with a bit of curiosity.

Now that Jiraya thought about it, the boy just didn't resemble his student – Minato but also had startling resemblance with his student's wife Kushina. The boy had bright red hair just like her and also the shapes of their eyes were strikingly similar. If only he could see the remaining face of the boy which he hid behind the mask and somehow find out that he boy had dyed his blonde hair red then he would say that it was 'him'.

But it was not right to again draw conclusions as Jiraya knew well enough that 'he' was dead. Though neither he nor Minato, Kushina and Tsunade on subconscious level believed that 'he' was dead but they had buried his small body and had come in terms with his loss in their lives. He watched as it was both of them somehow calmed themselves before Tsunade spoke again.

"So you are not the pervert's accomplice! Then do tell me, what are you doing here?" asked Tsunade in the same sweet voice she spoke till now.

"It was because of Jiraya-sama…" said the boy with fear in his tone as he pointed at Jiraya.

Jiraya's jaws dropped as his eyes narrowed at the boy's statement as he thought 'what the! How is it because of me!'

It seemed like everyone kunoichi shared his opinion as Tsunade asked, "How so!"

"I… I saw him as I was passing by one of Konoha's street (pointing at Jiraya). After looking at him for a couple of seconds I recognized him to be one of the members of the **Densetsu no Sannin** – Jiraya. So I went and asked him for an autograph but he went on to do some stupid introduction dance and told me since I recognized his greatness he would teach me something awesome instead of an autograph. Though he looked a bit, you know stupid as he did that introduction but still he is the great Jiraya and so I couldn't refuse it as I got to learn something from him. And this is the place he brought me for my first lessons", said the boy with a small fearful tone.

Jiraya was wide-eyed by the end of the little reasoning the boy gave for him being present here. All of it was a complete lie with a capital L. But with the way the boy spoke the lie so fluently, he was certain that if he didn't know the truth or it wasn't about him then he sure would have believed it. And now looking at all the kunoichis, he could tell that all had bought the boy's little story as it was either the words of the self proclaimed/well known Super Pervert Jiraya who was not allowed to speak against an innocent and scared looking boy.

"Jiraya! To take advantage of a boy's innocence and make him join your crime of peeping on women…" growled Tsunade as she punched him in the guts.

The punch by Tsunade was followed by the worst beating he had received so far in his marvelous life for peeping on women. He didn't know how long the beating lasted but was sure that it must have been an hour since they found him and the boy. Only one positive thing happened in the beat-down was that the younger-generation-kunoichis stayed out of it out of respect and it was also right of them to stay out since he was certainly not spying on them. Maybe in a few years when they would grow old enough as all of them showed signs of being beautiful kunoichis in the future.

…_With the Jounin trio…_

The trio of Kakashi, Asuma and Gai watched the beatings that Jiraya-sama was receiving with pity for the great man an also a small amount of fear watching the fury of women especially kunoichis. The trio was currently hiding behind a tree at a safe distance from the scene as to not be labeled perverts. They had arrived at the place following the red-haired boy who had avoided a beating from those kunoichis in a real smart way as he forced the blame on Jiraya-sama.

"We better leave before someone senses us", said Asuma to which the other two agreed and used **Shunshin** to get the hell out of there.

…_Back with the Super Pervert Jiraya…_

"So tell me boy what are you doing here in Konoha? As I am certain I have not seen you around in Konoha?" Jiraya who was half conscious heard Tsunade ask the boy.

Jiraya also wanted to know who the boy was since the boy had amazingly avoided his share of beatings albeit he was the one who took the whole blame and beatings. But still to survive and that to without a single scratch after spying on kunoichis/women/girls in the onsen and later being caught by the said kunoichis/women/girls had earned he boy respect in Jiraya's eyes. So he was also curious to who the boy was.

"Oh! I am a ronin! I am here to take part in the chuunin selection exams!" said the boy which garnered interests of the kunoichis especially the younger-generation who was also going to participate in the said exams.

"Oh shit! And again I got side tracked with my main objective!" the boy shouted as he palmed his forehead with his right palm to which all sweat dropped.

So finally Jiraya got some info on the boy and as he had concluded the boy was certainly a ninja but he couldn't tell which country he belonged to as he wore no hitai-te. But the boy being a wandering ninja piqued his interests in the boy more since unlike the past at the founding of hidden villages the number of ninjas not affiliated to a certain village or clan had decreased greatly and especially now-a-days there were hardly any present.

"Ahhh! I should leave! I have to go register myself!" the boy shouted as he put his hands in the Hitsuji (Ram) seal.

"Wait!" said Kushina to the boy to which the boy obliged.

Jiraya was surprised to hear Kushina for the first time in the last hour since they had been found out also she seemed a lot calmer in today after finding him peeping on women. At first he thought it was because she let Tsunade handle the situation but bow hearing her ask the boy to wait he got a clue at her behaviour till now. She just like him and Tsunade were shocked seeing the boy but for her it had gone beyond that as the boy resembled her son. Jiraya remembered how she ha been broken at that night seeing the corpse of her child. She had somehow pulled herself back from depression from sheer willpower for her daughter's well being and slowly over the years the old Kushina resurfaced hiding the pain of loosing one of the twins in the depth of her heart. After she had recovered from her depressed state, she was the one who believed the most that her child was still alive somewhere in this world.

"At least tell us your name…" said Kushina sounding calm but Jiraya could tell and he knew so could Tsunade and some others that it was a desperate attempt of a mother to know who the boy in front was.

"AH! I forgot to introduce myself…" the boy said as he scratched the back of his head and even with the mask on everyone could tell that he had a stupid/sheepish grin on his face.

"The names Naruto, -ttebayo!" said the boy which froze three people in their spot while most didn't seem to care much apart from a few who knew how much that name mattered to those three.

Jiraya just stared at the boy with wide eyes as so did Tsunade and Kushina as to not only the boy had so much similarities to Minato an Kushina but also the boy seemed to have a personality like that of Kushina. And of all was the part was that the boy's name was Naruto and also he used a verbal tic similar to Kushina furthering their doubts.

"I should take my leave! I don't want to be late in submitting the forms!" said the boy as Jiraya could detect nervousness in the boy's voice as he saw the two women staring at him in a shocked face as he boy used **Shunshin no Jutsu** to move out of the clearing.

"Naruto!" Jiraya heard Kushina mutter from his spot as a small tear left her right eye.

Jiraya saw Tsunade walk close to Kushina as she placed a hand on her shoulders and whispered something into her ears which caused a smile to appear on the face of the mother.

…_Later that evening at the Hokage Tower…_

Today was one of the busiest days for the Hokage of Konoha as there was only a week left for the bi-annual chuunin selection exams especially because it was their turn to host the exams. Today he had made the news of the exams official to the jounins of Konoha who had a genin team and had asked them which of them were going to nominate their teams for the exams. Also surprisingly most of the teams that had decided to participate in the exams had arrived today of which h was currently holding registration form of three specific teams. First was a team from **Otogakure no Sato (Village Hidden in Sound)** which by Jiraya's information network was believed to be a village linked to Orochimaru. The second one was a team from **Sunagakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Sand)** composed entirely of the three children of the Kazekage of which one was he Jinchuuriki of the **Ichibi no Shukaku (One-Tailed Shukaku)**. The last was the only team from **Iwagakure no Sato (Hidden Stone Village)** signifying the peace talks between the two countries were heading in a positive direction.

Finally setting those three folders down, the Hokage looked at the remaining team folders and tried to judge who looked a good and capable team and candidates for the exams. Finally examining each of the folders of the participating teams his eyes laid upon a folder which was labeled 'Ronin'. This surprised the Hokage a bit as the last he remembered of a team of ronin participating in a chuunin selection exam was when he had just received the rank of a chuunin and was asked to look on the preparations of the exams. As he remembered the team didn't do much good and was forced to forfeit in the team survival trial because of the death of one of their teammate. Putting that incident at the back of his mind, he focused back on the folder which was in his hand which he felt was very thin compared to all the other folders.

He opened the folder to find a recommendation letter from the Wasabi Family of **Cha no Kuni (Land of Tea)**. He had heard from one of the information sources that a ronin who was traveling by the country had helped the Wasabi Family to gain ownership of the Degarashi Port. The ronin had helped the Wasabi Family's runner in the Todoroki Shrine Race against that of the runner of Wagarashi Family who had used help of some nuke-nins to win the race. And it seemed the ronin who was participating was the same ronin who helped the Wasabi Family as the letter spoke highly of him. He then checked the registration form of the team and was surprised as the form only had detailed of one ronin. In case of ronin, they were allowed to participate in a team of three or two and even alone as sometimes ronin worked alone.

But there was something else that had surprised the leader of the village which was considered strongest of the five great hidden villages was the info of the boy. Looking at the photo of the boy, at one glance he could tell the resemblance the boy shared with him and his wife. The boy had his eye colour but the shape of his eyes resembled that of his wife while it was the opposite with his hair. The remaining part of his face was covered with a light blue mask and even than he could tell he boy was grinning behind it as he showed the victory sign. Also the surprising part was that the boy's name was Naruto and he was the same age as his daughter.

Namikaze Minato lay back on his chair as a huge sigh was released from his mouth. The boy resembled his deceased son greatly as he thought his boy would look similar to the boy in the picture with only difference would be he would have blonde hair.

"I just hope Kushina doesn't meet the boy…" said Minato to no one on particular.

The trauma his wife had gone after the death of their child and the only reason she was able to be back like the old times because she had him and their daughter to look after. But even now he knew she had not forgotten about him as she sometimes cried in his arms remembering about him.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**By reading until now you should have understood that the Kyuubi is sealed in the Yondaime's Daughter and both he and his wife are alive. Also Tsunade and her apprentice have already returned back to the village. **

**To simply put the day the Kyuubi was extracted, Kushina gave birth to twins and they decided to seal it inside their daughter as the previous two hosts were both Uzumaki females. Neither did Minato use 'Shiki Fuujin (Dead Demon Consuming Soul)' nor were both parents pierced by Kyuubi's claw. As for Kushina surviving even after the extraction is because she is an Uzumaki and was not as old as Mito Uzumaki when the Kyuubi was extracted out of her and also because of Tsunade's help. So I am not going to write a chapter for that day.**

**Ranton (Storm release) – the advanced nature Kekkei Genkai which combines lightning and water based chakra to create energy beams will be like Mokuton (Wood release) in terms of user. There will only be one person in my story who will be capable of using the advanced nature Kekkei Genkai Ranton. Also like Mokuton, Ranton will also have its special abilities other than being an advanced nature Kekkei Genkai. **

**So if you are a fan of Darui then I am sorry to say that it would not be him. He is already cool in a lazy way with use of combination jutsus of two elements, black lightning and Kenjutsu.**

**Help – I want my readers to suggest me a name for Naruto's twin and please suggest a name with a good meaning. I already have two names thought out:**

***Ako – second child,**

***Ran – water lily; symbol of purity.**

**You can also choose one of the two.**

**Special Note – this fiction will not be my main focus so don't force me for updates as I will update chapters as soon as possible. My main focus is 'Mahora's Kiiroi Arashi' and then 'Naruto Rising'.**


	2. Hakushoku Raiu

**Hakushoku Raiu!**

It had been two days since Naruto entered Konoha and in the past two days all his image of a hidden village had been shattered to pieces. Konoha was not like the other two hidden villages he had visited… no, rather infiltrated in the past couple of years. But seeing that the time he had infiltrated the two villages, the villages were going through problems of their own which ranged from disputes between Kage and the Daimyō or a civil war. Still, he had envisioned a hidden village to be… how was he to say it… well hidden… and with ninjas moving from rooftop to rooftops around the village patrolling the village 24x7.

Konoha was certainly not anything like that. If it wasn't for their ninja attire and the way they carried themselves, Naruto was certain that he wouldn't be able to differentiate between the civilians and ninjas. He had learned of a few things of Konoha while he wandered around the elemental nations and even more from the old man, but to see it with his own eyes was something else. If it wasn't for the barriers, seals and the ninjas patrolling the walls of the village, he would never dream of calling Konoha a hidden village. But all things aside, it was certainly refreshing to finally visit the village.

Currently he was heading to a place which had come to be his most favorite place of all the places he had come across so far in all his wanderings. He had come across the place after he had submitted his registration form for the chuunin selection exams or rather he was drawn to the place by the sweet aroma of the god's food emitted from a nearby restaurant. And as always his nose didn't disappoint him as the place served the best tasting god's food he had eaten so far through his journey. Also to add to the god's food was the beautiful, curvaceous and brown-haired-eyes waitress that served the god's food adding a charm to the place.

Naruto was so much immersed in the thoughts of the god's food and the charming waitress that worked at the restaurant that he was completely oblivious to the world around him. He was so oblivious to his surroundings that he completely missed the brown haired, long blue scarf wearing 8-9 years old brat running directly towards his direction from his left. He only noticed the boy when finally the boy who also seemed oblivious to the path in front of him as the boy dashed pass him missing him by a few inches only to crash into someone else.

"Ouch"

"That hurts…"

…_A few minutes earlier…_

Uzumaki-Namikaze-Ran was currently making her way to meet her best friend/sister (only not in blood) Hyuuga Hinata. Just moments ago Kakashi-sensei had handed the team the application forms to enter the chuunin selection exams that were going to be held in Konoha in the next five days. Being the daughter of the Yondaime, she already knew that it was almost unheard of a rookie gennin team who has just passed out of the academy to enter the exams. But her team was not an ordinary team… heck, all the three teams of her graduating class who passed their jounin-sensei's test were not ordinary.

She just like her teammate Sakura was a bit nervous about the exams, but unlike Sakura it was neither because she doubted her skills nor she thought that she wasn't ready to take part in the exams but it was rather because of her excitement of finally stepping a step further towards her dream. Her dream was something which she inherited from her parents but mostly her mother and that was to one day succeed her father as the first female Hokage. It was not just the dream of being she inherited from her mother but also she was a chibi version of her mother or rather she looked similar to her mother when she was her age with the only difference was her blonde hair of the shade similar to her father and the whisker marks on her cheeks. She even wore attire similar to her mother when she was genin which consisted of short sleeve, kimono-like plain blouse with dark embroidered border with loose sleeves held close with a dark obi, a dark skirt and stockings that stopped at her thighs. And that is where her similarity to her mother ended as personality wise she was her father's daughter, she was calm and collected unlike her mother who happened to be a tomboyish girl when she was her age.

Finally she reached the meeting place which she had decided with Hinata and found her friend to be waiting there. She waved at her waiting friend and made her way towards her, but only to stop in her steps as she felt someone or rather a group of three dashed past her. One glance at those three and she easily recognized them as Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. She didn't know what those three were running from so desperately but she knew one thing and that being the trio or at least Konohamaru was going to crash into the red-hair guy whom she recalled to be Naruto from the onsen incident two days back. She was about to call them to stop before they crash into the boy but didn't as she watched them miss him just by a few inches. But it seemed like luck was not on the side of the three academy students as she watched Konohamaru crash into someone else a few steps further from the red-haired boy. But she had to quickly rush to the boy's aide as she watched the person he crash into lift him by his scarf up to his face level.

…_Back to the present time with Naruto…_

Naruto had seen that the three who dashed pass him were kids around the age of 8-9 and also the trio seemed to be in some kind of hurry, either they were late for something or running from someone/thing. Though the brats were lucky enough to not crash into him but at the same time weren't lucky enough to avoid another passerby. Before he could turn his head in the direction where the brats crashed into someone, he turned his head to his left as he heard a girl shout someone's name.

"Konohamaru-kun!"

Naruto watched as two cute girls around his age, one with long blonde hair while the other with short, hime-cut, dark blue hair dash pass him. He clearly remembered the two from the onsen incident two days back but he quickly cut their images of his mind for the time being as he decided to figure what was going on seeing the angry look on the blonde's face. He turned his head in the direction which the girls ran at or rather the place where the brats crashed into some passerby. But the person of the brat crashed into and was now holding by his scarf was Kankurou and by his side stood his elder sister Temari which caused a mischievous grin to spread across Naruto's face.

…_Normal point of view…_

"That hurt you little piece of shit!" said Kankurou hoisting the boy who crashed into him by his scarf.

"Don't, we'll get yelled at later", Temari warned Kankurou as she watched her brother bullying a kid.

"Konohamaru-kun!" both the siblings heard someone shout.

They turned in the direction of the voice to find two girls rush towards them with the blonde girl looking a bit angry. Both the siblings could make out that the two were probably genins of Konoha. But Temari was able to recognize something which her stupid brother to notice was that one of the girls matched the description of the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage.

"Unhand Konohamaru-kun, Suna-nin!" said Ran as she stood few feet away from the Suna-nin in a calm tone with a small tone of anger in her voice.

"Ran-nee-chan! Hinata-nee-chan! " called the two other kids.

Temari's eyes widened as she heard the name the other two kids shouted as she thought 'Ran… So I was right! She is the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage! I hope you don't do anything…'

"What if I don't?" asked Kankurou in an arrogant voice.

"Kankurou don't? That's…" Temari tried to say something to Kankurou but was interrupted by her brother.

"Don't worry sis, I have everything under control…" said Kankurou to Temari.

Kankurou watched as the blonde Konoha kunoichi was now holding a kunai in her right hand while the dark blue haired kunoichi took a defensive taijutsu stance. But the two were no longer alone as they were joined by another blonde and a pink haired girl.

"What's going on here, Ran?" Ino asked her fellow blonde kunoichi.

Instead of answering Ino's question, Ran tightened the grip on the kunai as she glared at the cat-suit Suna-nin as she spoke in a threatening voice, "Unhand him!"

"To threaten me! You got some guts, girl!" said Kankurou with a mad grin on his face.

'What's with that guy…?' thought Sakura as she started to sweat seeing the grin on the Suna-nin's face.

But before things could escalate any further between the two parties, something struck the right hand of Kankurou making him drop Konohamaru, who unceremoniously fell on his butt. The thing that forced Kankurou to remove his hold on the brat was a stone as the said brat rushed towards his friends and Ran.

"What are you bastards doing in our village?" everyone heard someone say and looked at the source of the voice to find Uchiha Sasuke sitting on a branch of a nearby tree juggling some rocks.

"Sasuke-kun!" cried/chirped/screeched Sakura and Ino together seeing their knight in shining armour present at the scene.

"Show-off!" muttered Ran as she already knew that her third teammate was already present in the area and waited for the right time to make his presence known.

Both Hinata and Temari shared the same opinion as Ran, though Hinata also was thankful of him for saving Konohamaru-kun. As of Kankurou, the boy was currently glaring at the Uchiha as he held onto his right hand which was struck by the stone.

"Get lost!" Sasuke said as he glared back at the boy who was glaring at him.

"Kyaa! So cool! Get him Sasuke-kun!" chirped/screeched Sakura and Ino with eyes for their eyes while the kunoichis present there shook their head in disgust at the two fan girl kunoichis.

"Hey punk, get down here!" called out Kankurou directly facing the Uchiha. He just intended to have a little by bullying the brat who crashed in him and also bully those weak looking kunoichis, but now he was pissed.

"I hate show-offs like you the most", said Kankurou as he loosened the bandage which kept the bandaged Karasu (Crow) on his back bringing it in front of him to teach the duck-butt a lesson.

"Hey, you even going to use Karasu?" asked a panicked Temari to Kankurou as the situation seemed to be getting out of hand.

"Kankurou stop it."

Everyone heard the voice which sent a chill down their spine, especially because of the killer intent that washed over the area which was accompanied by the voice. All eyes traveled to the source of the voice to find a boy with brick-red hair and a gourd on his back hanging upside down on a branch of the same tree as Sasuke bu on the other side with help of chakra.

"You are an embarrassment to our village", said Gaara as he focused his killing intent on Kankurou which froze the boy in his steps.

Of all the genins present there, the minds of Ran and Sasuke calculated the sudden appearance of the brick-red haired boy. Both had come to one conclusion and that was the boy was someone to be watched during the exams as the boy showed Kakashi's level sneakiness.

Gaara took no notice of the stares and fear he had generated in the people in the clearing as he focused on Kankurou as he spoke, "Loosing yourself in a fight, how pathetic… Why do you think we came to Konoha?"

Finally Kankurou was able to speak as he quickly tried to defend his situation, "Listen Gaara, they started it and…"

"Shut up… I'll kill you…" said Gaara focusing a large dose of killing intent on his brother.

The dose of killing intent made Kankurou to start shivering along with causing him to sweat heavily as he somehow spoke, "Ok, I'm sorry…"

Temari also spoke to Gaara to try and defuse the situation between her younger brothers, "Look, Kankurou is sorry… I am also sorry… really…"

But Temari didn't get to finish her sentence as she watched her youngest brothers eyes glow with a murderous intent. It was not only her that saw that look, but only she and Kankurou truly understood that look which said that the Shukaku wanted blood. Both the siblings were frozen in their place as they watched the cork on the gourd to disintegrate into sand and sand shoot out of the gourd in their direction.

Ran watched with wide eyes as she watched the sand approach the two Suna-nins at a very high speed. She could tell that the boy who was named Gaara had every intention of killing the other two if the look in his eyes was anything to go by. She quickly started forming hand seals for one of the defensive jutsus she had knowledge of to interrupt the sand before it killed the two Suna-nins. She had no obligation to defend the two Suna-nins, but it was her conscious that had forced her to defend them because those three Suna-nins were siblings. Someone who had lost her twin brother at a young age and always wondered what having a brother actually felt like couldn't let siblings kill each other.

But to the shock of everyone present, especially Temari and Kankurou and relief of Ran (who was halfway through her seals) the sand shot pass the two Suna-nins.

"**Sabaku Kyū (Sand Binding Coffin)!**" everyone heard Gaara say as they watched the sand bind an invisible figure on the wooden wall behind the Suna siblings.

Finally the invisible figure that had been captured in the sand became visible or rather it was just his face which was visible to all. The Suna siblings along with the kunoichis of Konoha recognized the one caught in the sand.

'Him!' thought the four Konoha kunoichis with a small blush on each of their face.

"Him! This is bad!" thought the scared Kankurou and Temari.

"**Sabaku Sōsō (Sand Burial)!**", Gaara said.

Everyone watched in horror as the sand that was engulfing the boy suddenly crush him to death. But to the surprise of Temari and Kankurou instead of a fountain of blood flow out of the sand, a blast of lightning occurred with arcs of lightning sweeping the clearing forcing everyone to dodge the small bolts of lightning.

"My, aren't you eager to kill me Gaara!"

Everyone heard the new voice and turned towards it source, only to find the boy who was seconds ago crushed beneath the sand prison standing upside-down on the same branch next to Gaara. Even with the mask on his face, everyone could tell that the boy had a huge grin on his face beneath that mask.

'Damn! First the guy with the gourd… then this red haired, masked guy… I couldn't detect both…' thought Sasuke as he glared at the two boys who occupied the branch on the opposite side of the tree.

Inwardly Naruto sighed in relief for making a **Raiton: Kage Bunshin (Lightning Release: Shadow Clone) **for a **Kawarimi **if needed since he already predicted of Gaara being close by… and as he predicted, the moment the fellow red haired sensed him, he directly went for the kill.

"You wouldn't want to be disqualified even before the exams starts…" said Naruto as he watched Gaara's sand closing on him to engulf him for the second time in the day.

Naruto watched as those words surprisingly calmed Gaara as the sand receded back in the gourd, though he was still the focus of Gaara's killing intent. Naruto watched as Gaara used **Shunshin **to appear in between his siblings but still kept his killing intent focused on him.

"It looks like we got here too early but we didn't come here to play around. Let's go", said Gaara appearing in between his siblings his eyes still focused on Naruto.

"Hey, wait!" Sakura called out to the Suna-nins to the surprise of everyone present.

"What?" asked Gaara as he turned around to look at Sakura.

"Judging from your hitai-te, you guys are ninjas from Sunagakure right? You may be allies with Konoha but… It is forbidden for shinobi to enter each other's village without permission. State your purpose. Depending on it, we may not be able to let you go…" said Sakura making an intimidating (?) face.

"Don't you know anything?" Temari said clearly unaffected by the scary look on Sakura's face as she showed her pass to all "… You're right, we are genins from Sunagakure. We have come to your village to take the chuunin selection exams."

But before anyone could say anything further, Gaara spoke as he turned towards Naruto, "Are you entering the exams too?"

"Yes, I am", answered Naruto with a smile beneath his mask.

"Good! Mother will finally have your blood", said Gaara as he glared at Naruto which sent chills down the spine of the others.

"Before you present my blood to your so called mother…" said Naruto in a serious tone before suddenly disappearing in a burst of speed appearing next to Temari holding her by her waist with his left hand and spoke to her still in a serious tone "… How about I take you out on a date?"

Despite a visible blush could be seen on Temari's face, the girl somehow composed herself and answered, "No!"

A silence fell in the clearing to the extent they could hear the far away chirpings of birds as they watched the bright-red haired boy hung his head after the Suna girls answer and an aura of depression could be seen around him. But what happened next was something the Konoha-nins didn't expect as the boy disappeared again in burst of speed and reappeared in between Ran, Hinata and Ino with the cheerful expression on his face.

"Well since Temari said no… how about I take one of you three girls on a date with me…" Naruto said to the three surprised girls.

The three girls looked at the bright-red haired boy with wide eyes as he stood in between them with a grin behind the mask. Ran could only stare at the boy in utter disbelief. She had not sensed him move in between them and above all the boy was flirting with them. Hinata's face turned beet red as the boy asked one of them on a date, because she finally remembered the boy from two days back at the onsen. On the other hand, Ino was fighting hard to not say yes as Sasuke was in the vicinity.

"You… You…" muttered Temari as her face turned red because of anger as she clenched her fist tightly to stop herself from overreacting.

Since there was no response from the three girls, so he decided to try his luck further as he spoke, "… Or I could take the three of you on a joint date."

That was the final straw for Temari as she grabbed her Giant Folding Fan and charged at the bright-red haired boy with a war cry, "YOU FLIRT!"

Naruto was able to dodge the still folded Fan as it made contact with the ground where he stood causing a few cracks to appear on the ground. His eyes went wide as he watched Temari unfold her fan in its full glory ready to strike him with one of her deadly wind jutsus.

"I better take my leave…" said Naruto as he performed a half Hitsuji (Ram) hand seal with his right hand and disappeared in burst of speed.

"T… THAT BASTARD!" shouted Temari as she watched him disappear before she could hurt him.

The girls around her watched everything in mild amusement, though they couldn't help but agree with Temari that the boy certainly was a flirt. Meanwhile the three kids were truly afraid of the blonde Suna-nin as they watched her burn in anger and on the other side they were completely awed by the bright-red haired boy.

"If I didn't know better, I would say she is jealous…" muttered Kankurou as he watched his elder sister flare in anger.

"You say something, Kan-chan!" said Temari in a sweet voice as she looked at her brother.

"N… no! Nothing!" said Kankurou as he waved his hands in front of him to shield himself from his sister's wrath.

"Let's go!" said Temari as she walked towards her brothers to which both of them obliged without saying a single word.

"You with the gourd, what's your name?" asked Sasuke after jumping in front of the girls.

Gaara turned around to look into the eyes of the guy who asked him his name. Now that 'he' was here, Gaara had no interest in any other competition, but this boy's eyes were similar to his and he had hit Kankurou with just a stone thus getting Gaara's interest in the boy.

"Sabaku no Gaara…" Gaara finally answered "… I am also interested in your name?"

"It's Uchiha Sasuke…" answered Sasuke with arrogance in his voice as he stared at Gaara who just walked away after hearing his name which angered the Uchiha.

"Who was that other red-haired boy?" asked Ran, though she knew his name, she wished to know more about him since he certainly was skilled and these Suna-nin seemed to know him.

The three Suna siblings stopped in their steps as they heard the question. The Konoha-nins could feel the tension in the air increase with a considerable amount of killing intent being emitted by Gaara.

_Flashback…_

"_Seems like you are not that invincible after all…" Gaara heard his opponent say._

_Gaara looked at the boy with bright-red hair, dressed in blue and his face below his eyes covered with a light blue mask. He had been staying in Suna for the past month and was the only boy who showed no fear of him. Today he was asked by his father to capture him, but he was unable as the boy was more skilled than he had predicted. But the biggest thing was that the boy had bypassed his sand defense._

"_Heh… not only did I bypass your sand defense, Gaara… but I also succeeded in drawing the crimson blood flowing in your body, -ttebayo!" said the boy pointing at his right hand._

_And as the boy said, Gaara could feel and see his blood flow from a cut near his shoulder on his right hand. Not only had the boy been able to hurt him but also had been able to draw his blood._

…_End Flashback._

"His name is Naruto…" answered Temari "… And in the Suna Bingo Book he is nicknamed as **Hakushoku Raiu**** no Naruto (Naruto of the White Thunderstorm)**…" and with that the three Suna-nins left the clearing leaving behind wide eyed Konoha-nins and the three children.

…_That night at the Hokage mansion…_

Today was a rather noisy affair at the dinner table in the Hokage mansion. Ran watched in mild amusement as both her godparents start arguing on something stupid again while Shizune-nee-san tried to defuse the argument between the two. Ero-jii-san never learned, just a couple of days ago he was beaten close to his death by Tsunade-baa-chan but still he was sitting there and arguing with her. While waiting for the food which was only going to be served after Dad arrived, she focused on the events of the entire day. Today was mostly uneventful aside from her team receiving the application forms for the chuunin selection exams and meeting the three Suna genins and the ronin. She already knew that her team was going to receive the application forms taking into consideration that her team consisted of the Yondaime Hokage's daughter (her) and the last Uchiha. But the highlight of the day was the encounter with the three Suna-nins and the ronin. She couldn't help but think of the ronin.

Ran was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely missed the arrival of her father who was accompanied by the Sandaime Hokage. She also completely missed the arrival of the food and was so engrossed in her thoughts that she also didn't respond to them calling to her. She was finally brought of her thoughts as she felt someone shake her.

She looked to her left to find the one shaking her was her mother who looked a bit worried as she asked, "Something wrong, Kaa-chan?"

"We should be the one's asking you that, Ran", she heard her father's voice say.

She looked around the table to find that her father had already arrived along with O-jii-san and the dinner was already served while everyone was busy looking at her. Then it struck her that she was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely missed the above events.

"Nothing, just thinking", answered Ran feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Hoho… so little Ran finally thinking about…" said Jiraya as a small perverted giggle left his lips which earned him a glare from the women in the room.

"I was not thinking of a boy", shouted a red faced Ran which caused every head turn at her in complete shock.

Than it completely struck to Ran as to what she blurted out as she went onto damage control, "No, I didn't mean that… I mean… I was thinking about the boy… no… I mean he seemed a potential competition in the exams… I mean the incident that happened today…"

One thing Ran knew and that was she wasn't doing a good job explaining herself as she watched Ero-jii-san laughing out loud while Sandaime-O-jii-san and Shizune-nee-chan smiling at her misfortune. But what scared her was the stern look on the face of her parents and Tsunade-baa-chan.

"Explain?" said the three in unison.

Ran took a few deep breaths to compose herself after which she started speaking, "Today after team meeting, I came across a team from Suna which consisted of a girl named Temari and two boys of which one was called Kankurou… I think… and the other was called Gaara…"

"The Kazekage's children!" added Minato as he heard those names.

Ran was surprised to know that information but decided to continue "… And the boy Ero-jii-san fooled to join at the onsen the day before yesterday."

This earned Jiraya glares from the women present in the room while the two men looked a bit confused. Both the men knew of Jiraya had tried to spy on the onsen the day before yesterday after they found his battered and bruised body dragged in the Hokage office by Tsunade. But no one had talked of a boy accompanying Jiraya.

"Boy?" asked the confused Minato.

It was Tsunade who answered Minato's question as she recalled the event when they caught on the pervert peeping on the girls and women in the onsen. The story caused the two Hokages to glare at Jiraya for trying to corrupt the mind of the young generation. Also, just like with the girls and women at the onsen, Jiraya's pleas that the boy was lying to save his own ass fell on deaf ears. Meanwhile the name of the boy caused an unspoken conversation take place between Kushina and Minato as their eyes met, causing a flood of emotions through the eyes of the two which was only the elder shinobis in the room were able to see.

With the adults finally settling down, they made Ran o continue with her story and so she did. She went onto tell them that how she came across Kankurou and Temari which caused a small amount of anger to emit from the Sandaime since he treasured his grandson. After assuring the Sandaime that she and Hinata had everything under control and also the Sandaime believing in her and Hinata's capabilities, she continued her story. She went uninterrupted until the point of the entrance of Gaara, even her jab at Sasuke as the Emo-king only caused a laugh to erupt from Jiraya and giggles from others as they agreed with her at his show-off entrance. She continued to tell her story completely missing the others eyes widen as she said that Gaara intended to kill Naruto, but with some sort of a jutsu the bright-red haired boy survived the brick-red haired boy's sand jutsu which caused he other's to relax. She then told them how Naruto went onto ask Temari first and then her, Hinata and Ino on a date after being rejected by the blonde Suna-nin which caused giggles to escape from Jiraya's lips and tick marks develop on the forehead of the three women. She finally ended her recount of her encounter with the Suna-nins and him by telling them his desperate escape from Temari which caused the audience to giggle and them parting with the Suna-nins.

"So this boy Naruto seems to be acquainted with the children of the Kazekage", said the Sandaime Hokage.

"Yeah, it seems so", added Minato.

"I asked those Suna-nins whether they knew who he was…" said Ran as every eyes turned at her "… It was the Suna kunoichi who answered the question as she said 'his name is Naruto… and in the Suna bingo book he is nicknamed as **Hakushoku Raiu**** no Naruto (Naruto of the White Thunderstorm)**'."

This caused the eyes of the three of the women in the room to widen. Though all three of them were active jounins of Konoha, two of them rarely took missions these days while the third hadn't given the recent bingo books much of a glance. While a knowing look crossed the face of the three males in the room as they already knew that piece of information.

…_The day of the chuunin selection exams…_

Naruto stood in his hotel room which was given to him to say during the period of the chuunin selection exams as one of its participant. He was currently going through his gears for the last time before he made his way towards the Konoha Ninja Academy where he heard the first part of the exams was going to take place. His mind had already processed the possibility of what the first test might be after he was informed of the place where the test was going to take place. For the first time in his life he wished that his Devil's Luck fail him as he had predicted the test to be something which he thoroughly hated.

After finishing his final check-up on his gears and scrolls, Naruto made a straight beeline towards the Academy. As he walked the streets of Konoha, he concluded one thing and that was this was a wonderful place to settle in his old age. At first he was hesitant to visit Konoha after the big information bomb the old man dropped on him and only did so because he had promised him that he would certainly visit Konoha at least once. He had avoided Konoha for more than two years after he promise and only decided to finally visit Konoha this time was because of some disturbing news had reached his ears.

All that things aside, Konoha had the best Ramen Restaurant throughout the elemental nations with a beautiful and curvaceous waitress serving ramen. He had seen that he visited the stand every day in past seven days and could be said that he was on a strict ramen diet. Also Konoha had a lot of beautiful, hot, sexy women/kunoichis which was a super plus factor for Konoha and most of all some really eye catching girls around his age.

Finally he reached the Academy and wasn't surprised to see the mass number of genins in the grounds of the academy doing some light workout. He didn't give them much glance as he made his way directly to the room 301 assigned for the first test. As he walked up the stairs he came across teams from various countries which he had come across the last week. Finally he reached the second floor to find a huge crowd of genins gathered around the room labeled 301. Due to his logic of him climbing only the second floor and his ability with Genjutsu, it was easy for him to predict that there was an area wide Genjutsu spread on the floor and the room. He intended to just walk past the gathered crowd to the real room 301 and he certainly would have left if his duty didn't call him.

Naruto flickered from his position to appear directly behind a falling girl whose long brown hair were worn in Chinese-style buns on either side of her head and halted the girl from falling on the ground. His sudden burst of speed didn't go unnoticed by a few of the shinobis present which also included the girl's teammate.

"You know it isn't wise to block a girl's path… especially someone with skills…" Naruto said the second part in a low voice which only the girl in his arms could hear.

A blush appeared on Tenten's face as she looked back at her unwanted savior, only for her brown eyes to meet with her unwanted saviors bright-blue eyes. But the blush increased the moment her unwanted savior defended her against those disguised genins and was even able to catch on her act.

"What did you say?" asked the spiky haired genin blocking the door. But he didn't wait for any answers as he along with his partner went on to explain how tough these exams are and the role of a chuunin and it was their kindness that they were blocking unworthy genins entering the exam hall.

Naruto already knew that the one blocking the disguised room were doing exactly what they said. Those were probably disguised chuunin proctors trying to decrease the number of genin participant entering the exams. He was about to make his way towards the room 301 but was interrupted as he heard someone opening his big mouth about the genjutsu on the floor and the room. He turned around to find it was the boy who he had seen when he had met Gaara five days back. Even one glance at him that day had made him believe that the boy was an arrogant bastard, but seriously if the boy was doing this to boast his ego then he certainly was going to kick the boy's ass really hard for the increased competition. But his anger towards the duck-butt was cooled a bit when he saw the blonde girl on his team join him in his arrogant speech which surprised him since he didn't peg that girl as arrogant. But their next words caused a smile to appear on his face as he saw the two did the act to boost the confidence of their pink-haired teammate.

As the genjutsu on the floor and the room dissolved, Naruto watched in mild fascination at the spike haired disguised genin and the duck butt moved forward to attack each other by clashing their kick. He was a bit surprised when he found the bun haired girl's teammate who wore a green jumpsuit slide between the two and intercepted their kicks and caught them with his bare fist. The surprise was not because of the bushy-brow boy's speed or his strength, but was because he thought that the team had decided to act to make the other's think they were underdogs or something like that. His thoughts were confirmed when he heard the third member of the team talk with bushy-brows.

"This is certainly interesting…" Naruto said as he watched bushy-brows go and ask the pinky to be his girlfriend in a unique way and a thousand watt smile.

Naruto's words drew the attention of the nearby ninjas and especially those of team 7 excluding Sakura. Naruto oblivious to the stares he was receiving watched as the poor bushy-brows being rejected just for his looks. Naruto watched as the bun-haired girl's third teammate ask the duck butt his name which resulted in an arrogant talk between the two, which made Naruto conclude that both were stuck-up bastards. Even through this little incident he didn't miss the glare which the long-haired arrogant bastard was giving the blonde who just responded with a smile.

"And who might you be?" asked the long-haired arrogant bastard asked looking towards Naruto.

"Who? Me?" asked Naruto pointing at himself and only received a nod from the bastard.

Naruto could feel the arrogance dripping from the boy's actions and words and he had decided to kick the boy's ass with his words. He looked around to find the eyes of every ninja on him and especially that of team 7 and team Gai (he doesn't know their names) and so he decided to make it epic. He had seen this introduction only once before and had dubbed it stupid, but even then he was in a small amount mesmerized by it and it also had it quirks.

"Glad you asked (with a grin behind the mask)… I am the one around whom the winds whirl, lightning shimmers and water dances as I strike with the force of a maelstrom! I am the bringer of storms! I am the valiant Naruto!" Naruto finished his introduction by taking a Kabuki stance similar to the old pervert he met a week ago.

A deadly silence fell on the floor as all the present shinobis watched bright-red haired boy with big sweat drops on their foreheads. But for Naruto the introduction did what it was meant to do and that was to annoy the two stuck-ups as they glared at him with tick marks on their forehead.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Ran watched with a horrified look on her face as she watched Naruto perform his introduction. She was certain that Ero-jii-san had only met the boy once and if this was the consequence of a single meeting, then she didn't want to know what would happen if Ero-jii-san kept stumbling upon the boy. Ero-jii-san always whined about how no one would be following his footsteps of the great novel writer of the thrash which he called literature. She determined her resolve that she would personally see that the boy never again meet Ero-jii-san and if he did, she would be there to straighten her godfather.

Ran was not the only one with a different expression; the other was Lee who was awed by the Naruto's Youthfulness as he shouted it loud for everyone to hear causing more sweat drops on everyone's forehead. Lee's speech of Naruto's Youthfulness would had continued if Tenten who was frozen by the introduction of her unwanted savior jerk herself out of her frozen state to smack Lee shut.

…_In the real room 301…_

After arriving at the real room 301, Naruto directly went by to stand by an open window which wasn't occupied any team. While he was busy viewing the scenery outside the window, he was completely oblivious to the stares he was receiving from the genins present in the room.

"So, he was indeed telling the truth. He is going to compete in the exams…" Temari said in a low voice to her siblings to which Kankurou just nodded in affirmative "… and seems like he is going to compete as a one man team."

"It's not like he needs help of teammates", responded Kankurou.

Meanwhile a grin had spread across Gaara's lips scaring the people around him as he spoke, "Mother will definitely have your blood this time."

On the other corner of the room the team from Iwagakure watched the bright-red haired boy with raised eyebrows. The reason was because the hitai-te the boy wore on his right shoulder had no symbol indicating that the boy was a ronin.

"What is Konoha thinking letting a ronin enter the exams…? And it also seems that he is participating as a one-man team", said the girl who looked about 15-16 years old with short brown hair and light gray eyes. She wore a purple kimono with pink trims and detached sleeves, a yellow obi, gray stockings and black sandals.

"Well, he does look strong Suzumebachi", said the second member of the team who was large boy with dark eyes and hair that spikes out at the back from underneath his hitai-te which he wore like a bandana. He was wearing red attire which closely resembles the uniform worn by Iwagakure ninjas and in addition wore a yellow scarf around his neck. He looked to be around to be 15 years old.

"Whatever…" said the now identified Suzumebachi.

"… What do you think princess?" Suzumebachi asked the third member of the team who had short, black hair and pupil-less pink eyes. The girl wore a red-coloured, raised collar garment that reached below her stomach region with a full length sleeve on her left arm while sleeves missing, fishnet tights and a skirt over them. She looked around 13-14 years old.

Receiving no response for her question, Suzumebachi turned towards the girl and found her staring at the boy in discussion. A wicked grin spread on her face as she spoke, "I never thought that ever in my life I would get to see the princess eyeing a boy… But I must say princess, you definitely have good eyes. The boy certainly is a looker and that mask adds mystery to him."

This earned Suzumebachi a glare from her pink-eyed teammate as she spoke, "Don't put me in league with you, _Suzumebachi_… the reason I am looking at the boy is because I am certain that I have seen him somewhere…"

Back with Naruto, the boy was trying to remain calm watching the ever populated streets of Konoha to shake of his nervousness. It wasn't that he was nervous because of his lack of skills… hell, that certainly wasn't the problem… the problem was the room… to be exact, his prediction of what the first test might be seemed to be on the spot so far. He seriously wanted some major distraction at this point or he was going to explode because of nervousness… that certainly wasn't a way to die for a shinobi. He seriously some better distraction than just gazing out of the window… and distraction did come in the form of shouts of two girls.

Naruto turned towards the room's entrance where he found two teams from Konoha of genins around his age with the blonde-ponytailed girl and pinky fighting over the stuck-up emo while the other blonde chatting with the other two boys. Th group of six was joined by another team from Konoha around his age join them and the group of nine continued to chatter/argue oblivious to the stares they were receiving. It was kind of refreshing watching the nine interact oblivious to the world around them. He being a ronin had never given a chance for him to socialize with boys and girls around his age to be friends like those nine and also as a child he had lived a life far away from civilization with the old man. But his eyes suddenly narrowed as h watched a grey-haired, spectacle wearing Konoha-nin around 20 approached the nine making them recognize the place they currently were.

His experience of about three to four years of a shinobi, Naruto had learned to somewhat gauge a ninja's capabilities and that grey-haired Konoha-nin was certainly way stronger than h was letting off with his behaviour. He couldn't exactly tell his skill level, but was certain that the boy didn't belong on this stage and his suspicion was further increased as he heard the teen show the nine his Nin-Info Cards. His suspicion solidified when he heard him say that he had information of every individuals participating in the exams.

…_With the rookie nine and Kabuto…_

A smirk appeared on Sasuke's face as this Kabuto guy affirmed of having information on individual ninjas participating in the exams as he said, "Gaara of Sunagakure, Rock Lee from Konoha…" he wondered for a second whether he really wanted info on the third but remembering his skills from that day he was forced to say "… and Naruto a ronin."

The rookie nine looked with anticipation at Kabuto for the info of the people that Sasuke called out especially the kunoichis for the info on the last ninja.

"Oh, you know their names, should be easy then", said Kabuto as he swept his hand over his deck of Nin-Info Cards drawing out three cards from it.

"Show me", said Sasuke as excitement could be felt in his voice.

"Ok, first is Rock Lee…" said Kabuto bringing forth Lee's card and went on to tell the nine rookies info on the green-spandex wearing boy. The information consisted from the boy's mission history, his skills and his team.

"Next is Sabaku no Gaara…" said Kabuto bringing forth Gaara's card and then telling the rookies info on the gourd-carrying boy. Just like with Lee, Kabuto told the rookies information on Gaara's mission history and team but not of his skills as he said that was because of him being from a foreign nation.

"… Also it seems he returned from all his missions without even a scratch…" said Kabuto shocking/scaring the rookies and the genins who were also listening on the conversation "… There is only one known incident when Gaara was wounded and that is supposedly marked as classified by the Kazekage."

This surprised the rookies even further, but amidst them a couple started to put the dots together. Meanwhile the Suna genins who were close by listening to the information slightly turned their heads toward the ronin who was participating in the exams the moment the information was brought forth.

"Finally, Naruto…" said Kabuto drawing the attention of the girls and Sasuke while the other boys looked a bit confused.

"… Amazing!" said Kabuto with awe in his voice which caused all the rookies eyebrows to rise.

Kabuto was silent for a couple of seconds after which he finally decided to speak, "There is no info of the boy's origin nor is he affiliated to any known shinobi village…" this surprised a few "… He is going to compete in the exam as a one-man team… But what is the most interesting info on the boy are his Bingo Book listings…" this caused the eyes of the rookies along with the eavesdropping genins eyes to widen "… He is nicknamed as **Hakushoku Raiu**** no Naruto** in the Suna Bingo Book and considered a…WH!"

The rookies and Kabuto watched as the Nin-Info Card which contained the info of Naruto was removed out of his hands and found the card to be pinned on the wall behind him by a senbon. It surprised the rookies as none of them had sensed the senbon, but they were further surprised and also shocked as they watched a sealing array appear with the card as the centre with the kanji for 'Fire' appear on the card… and a second later the card caught flames burning down to dust which was blown away by the wind.

"Information is the greatest weapon in the world of shinobis…" the rookies and Kabuto heard someone say and turned towards the source to find Naruto walk towards them with a small smile behind his mask as he twirled a senbon in the fingers of his left hand.

"… Don't you agree with me, Kabuto-san?" asked Naruto completely ignoring the shock of the rookies and the glare of Sasuke.

Kabuto answered after a silence of couple of seconds as he stood up, "Indeed… (Facing the rookies) Konoha, Suna, Taki, Ame, Kusa, Oto, Iwa… Many outstanding genins from the various hidden villages are here to take the exams. Well… Otogakure is a small village crated last year so not much is known about them, but the rest of the hidden villages are filled with talented youngsters."

"So basically… all the people here are…" said a nervous Sakura as she glanced at the bright-blonde haired boy.

"M… makes you lose your confidence… This certainly won't be easy…" said Hinata as she glanced at the entire room with nervousness.

"Nothing is easy…" said Naruto catching the attention of all present genins.

"… You just give it your best and never give up…" said Naruto with a smile behind his mask as he looked at Hinata which caused her to turn crimson red as she nodded in agreement while the others looked at the scene in mild amusement.

…_With the Iwa team…_

Suzumebachi's jaws were currently hitting the floor while her eyes had widened about the size of dinner plates. No words were forming on her lips as she heard the small amount of info about the bright-red haired ronin.

"So that's why he looked familiar…" said Kurotsuchi making her teammates head turn towards her "… I have seen his picture in the recent Bingo Books of Sunagakure and Kirigakure."

…_Back with the rookies, Kabuto and Naruto…_

"… And if you still feel nervous, then let it all out", said Naruto as he then faced the room full of genins confusing the rookies and causing a look of dread cause Ran's eyes.

"The names Naruto! I won't lose to you bastards, -ttebayo!" shouted Naruto as he pointed at the class filled with genins.

The eyes of the rookies were widened at the display of the supposedly Bingo Book shinobi. But none of their eyes were widened as that of Ran, for a split second she had seen a shadow of her mother's younger self stand besides the boy daring the class full of genins.

"That always feels nice", said Naruto with a huge grin on his face as he turned towards the stunned rookies.

…_With the other genins in the room…_

"He might have grown stronger from the last time we saw him, but he certainly hasn't matured", said Temari as she looked at Naruto with a small smile on her face.

"It's not that he hasn't matured, he is just plain stupid", deadpanned Kankurou which caused a giggle escape Temari's lips.

"He is certainly strong, but also… immature", Kurotsuchi muttered looking at the bright-red haired ronin, while Suzumebachi just looked at the boy with wide eyes.

"To be listed in Bingo Books, he certainly is strong…" said Neji as he looked at Naruto.

"… And he is very spirited", said Lee with a grin on his face.

"And also handsome", muttered Tenten with a small blush on her face to which her team looked at her with wide eyes.

…_Back with the rookies, Naruto and Kabuto…_

Some of the rookies seriously doubted that the boy in front of him was a ninja capable of being registered in a Bingo Book after his outright challenge to all as they didn't know whether to call it an act of stupidity or bravery.

But things were different with Naruto as he sensed an incoming attack in their direction. It was not just him who sensed the incoming attack as so did Kabuto. Both of them turned around to find a Oto-nin with spiky, dark hair jump in air using one of the benches as a leverage and hurl a couple of kunais at them which the two easily dodged. Naruto watched as a second Oto-nin appeared in front of Kabuto whose face was covered completely in gauze only leaving his left eye uncovered and with a strange device on his left arm.

It seemed to Naruto that the focus of attack of the Oto team was Kabuto. He watched with interest as the Oto-mummy-nin swing his left arm in the face of Kabuto, which the elder boy dodged with ease. While all looked amazed at the reaction time of Kabuto for dodging the attack, Naruto felt disturbance in the air between Kabuto and the Oto-mummy-nin which made him narrow his eyes. And as he wondered the reason for the disturbance of air between the two ninjas, his eyes widened as he watched the glass of Kabuto's glasses crack and fall.

The rookies were surprised seeing the glass on the glasses of the elder genin as they wondered how had that happened even after he elder genin dodge. They were further surprised as they watched the elder genin throw up. They were not the only ones who were surprised by this as the entire room of genins stared at the Oto-nins sanding in front of the elder genin wondering what exactly had happened as the Oto-nin spoke of their awesomeness.

"Idiots!" muttered Naruto as he looked at the Oto-nins as they speaking of their awesomeness to Kabuto. He had figured out the secret behind whatever jutsu the mummy-nin used seconds after the glass on the glasses of Kabuto cracked and fell. It certainly was an inventive jutsu and certainly would be an ace in the hole, but according to him it was arrogant of them to show off the jutsu even before the exam begin. Speaking of the exams a large booming sound was heard throughout the room.

"Quite down you worthless bastards!"

Naruto watched with a large boom and huge amount of smoke a huge number of Konoha shinobis appeared in the front side of the classroom. The head of the group proctors who began to talk introduced himself as Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the chuunin selection exam's first test.

…_At the Hokage's mansion…_

He group of five consisting of Minato, Kushina, Tsunade, Jiraya and Hiruzen were all seated around a crystal ball through which they were viewing the happenings inside the exam room 301 by the use of **Tōmegane no Jutsu (Telescope Technique)**. Normally the first exams of the chuunin selection exams wouldn't have garnered the interest of the top five shinobis of Konoha, but seeing that one of the participants was a daughter of two of them and goddaughter of other two, while the fifth and the eldest consider her as a granddaughter.

The atmosphere in the room was a mixture of both happiness and sadness as they watched the happenings in the room 301. They had watched all the events that unfolded in a span of few minutes from the moment Ran and her team entered the room until Ibiki entered the room. The reason for the contrast of atmosphere in the room was the ronin Naruto, the similarities between the boy and Kushina were hard to ignore any longer. The boy had been observed since the day Ran talked of him at dinner where Minato learned that Kushina already met the boy and his actions just kept on reminding them of a young Kushina.

"It is certainly _him_, Minato…" said Kushina with tears flowing down her eyes as she faced her husband.

"But Kushina-kun, you were the first and the last person to hold _his_ body _that day_", said Sarutobi which caused a sad look appear on everyone's face.

"I… I know… b… but… it's just… every time I see him… I… I want to hold him like I hold Ran close to me…" said Kushina in between her sobs as Minato held her closer to him.

"I understand, Kushina-kun! The similarities between you two jus can't be denied!" said Sarutobi as he gazed in his crystal ball with a smile on his face.

"Yep! Definitely Kushina!" said Tsunade as she watched the said boy ducked in a corner of the room with a aura of depression over his head and cursing his luck as he heard that the first test was a paper test which caused chuckle to escape every lips except Kushina who looked a bit embarrassed.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**Only three suggestions were given for the name of the daughter of the Yondaime of which one agreed with the name Ran, and so I stuck with it.**

**Also this is not a fiction where his parents neglected Naruto nor is his sister some kind of a jerk… I just can't see those things happening. Naruto's story will be completely revealed by the end of the chuunin exams with flashbacks in some chapters. And also the mystery over Naruto's red hair will also be solved before the end of the exams.**


	3. The Second Test

**The Second Test…**

…_Naruto's Point of view…_

Standing in front of the closed gates of Practice Arena 44 or as the proctor so lovingly called it 'Forest of Death', the place where the second test was going to be held, Naruto looked completely bored as he eyed the creepy looking forest. He could clearly see that most of the chuunin hopefuls were clearly scared by the creepiness of both the forest and the proctor of this exam. Even he couldn't fault others of thinking of the forest being creepy as it did give an aura of creepiness and danger, but he certainly had an objection of others thinking of the proctor as a creepy one as her creepiness had a certain level of charm to it adding to her sexiness.

Now that looking at all the remaining competition, he felt a bit silly about his little outburst against the proctor of the first exam. That scar faced proctor was grating on his nerves as he played his little mind game against the genins before asking the tenth question. But when he had decided to confront the proctor in hopes the man would stop his mind games and get on with the final questions in hope of leaving the examination hall as soon as possible, he had no idea that his outburst would have an effect of installing courage in the hearts of others to stay put in their seats and pass the exam. A total of 30 teams along with him had passed the first part of the exam which according the second proctor was something unusual. The more the teams meant more competition which he was happy about, but at the same time he also felt a bit stupid because some of the remaining genins seemed not much of a competition and he would be responsible for some teams passing easily in the upcoming tests as the second test seemed to be some kind of survival test.

His eyes silently gauged the competition/threat a team would pose him in the upcoming tests. A few teams had already caught his attention from the beginning of the exams and some even before the exams which included the team of the Yondaime's daughter and Konoha's last loyal Uchiha, the Hyuuga boy and his team, the only team from Iwa and the team of Gaara and his siblings. Then there was Kabuto and the ninja from Kusa of whom his instincts were screaming to him to stay out of their way.

…_Anko's point of view…_

'I so love this…' she thought as she watched the nervous and scared faces of the genins as their eyes feasted upon the magnificent view of Training Ground 44. Though there were few among the genins who didn't seem scared, but rather seemed to her as if they were looking forward to the upcoming challenge.

As she went on explaining the rules of the second part of the exams, her eyes steadily surveyed the genins in front of her. As she had thought and told Ibiki, most of the bunch was certainly not of the chuunin caliber. But there were certainly a good crop of genins in this lot as Ibiki had told her.

Her eyes then laid on the rookie teams of Konoha which were the most hyped teams from Konoha to join this year's exam. Three of the rookie teams were the most recently graduated teams from the academy, while the last was the team of genins who passed a year before them. Even she could tell that of the four teams, a few of the genins did seem to have potential from what she had heard of them.

Next her eyes laid on the teams that the Yondaime had ordered to keep a close eye on. First was the team from Otogakure, which in her opinion was a skilled team, but whether they had the potential or not of that she wasn't certain of. Next was one of the team from Sunagakure, which not only seemed skilled, but also in her accords the team with the highest potential of all the teams she had laid her eyes on so far. Last, but not the least was the ronin who had joined the exams without the aid of any team member.

Just like any ronin who entered a ninja village, the boy was under constant surveillance to gauge whether he was a threat to Konoha or not. She too had been on the watch in the last week once and in that time the only thing that she had learned about the boy was that he had an unhealthy obsession of ramen. It was really embarrassing to report the Hokage with only that information after being on the surveillance of the boy for twelve hours. She did feel relieved when she was informed that all those on the boy's surveillance had brought back information which was similar to hers. She like many on the watch of the boy knew of the bounty the boy had on his head through the recent bingo books, but till now she had seen the boy display any skills that had put him in the bingo books. A small tick mark appeared on her forehead as her eyes lay on the said boy as his head was currently buried deep in a book.

'Wasn't it enough for the brat to wear a mask like Kakashi…? As he now as his head buried deep in a book…' she thought. Though she had nothing against the boy, but she certainly had a grudge against Kakashi as he had recently eluded her from her rightful dango which he was to purchase for her as per a bet they made.

With a practiced ease and speed only one of a jounin rank and with years of training and experience could attain, a kunai left her wrist directly towards the boy. The kunai didn't seem to deflect from its intended target and the target itself didn't seem to notice the kunai approaching him. She watched with a small hidden smirk as the kunai graced the masked right cheek of the ronin and cut enough to draw some blood. This was her chance to rile up all the participants as she with a burst of speed appeared behind the boy lightly hugging him from the back.

"So little enthusiasm…" she started speaking cupping the face of the boy with her hands and bringing her face closer to his "… It is kids like you that are quickly killed… Hehehe… spraying the red blood I love…" she said as she licked the blood on his masked face.

She was mentally getting annoyed as she didn't get the desired response from the red head as he looked completely bored at her scaring tactics. But there was some relief when her eyes swept on the other contestants to find them scared by her little fun play.

At that moment she sensed someone creep on her from behind and on instinct she activated the hidden kunai mechanism in her sleeves which shot forth a kunai in her palms and blocked the incoming attack (hopefully).

"Here's your kunai…" she heard the voice of the female who held her kunai (previously thrown) by that elongated tongue of hers.

"Why thank you", she replied in mock happiness as she pressed her kunai a little further on that disgustingly long tongue of the Kusa-nin.

She didn't know why but something about the Kusa kunoichi was sending her bad vibes, but she ignored it for the time being.

"But you know, don't sneak up behind me unless you want to die", she said as she pocketed both her kunai.

"No… I just get excited when I see red blood… plus you cut my precious hair, I couldn't help it…" she smirked at the Kusa-nins reply.

"Sorry about that", she couldn't help but say as she as a woman understood the importance of hair to a woman.

"Looks like we have a lot of blood thirsty ones in this test. Hehehe, this should be fun", she couldn't help as the words left her lips.

'And some interesting ones…' she thought as she eyed the ronin standing next to her. It was clear to her when she tried to freak the boy out with her little crazy-blood-loving act that the boy had already anticipated her attack and could have possibly dodged it if he were to try. But her interest in him roused when she saw his eyes which had turned cold and calculating when the Kusa-nin sneaked on her. There was no sign of boredom or childish enthusiasm in his eyes which she had seen far as his eyes looked at the Kusa-nin. Somehow those cold and calculating bright blue eyes made her feel like being in the presence of the Yondaime Hokage which nerved her a bit.

…_Normal point of view…_

The nervousness could clearly be seen written on the faces of more than half the genins who had qualified for the second round of the Chuunin Selection Exams and the proctor was making sure that the nervousness was increased ten folds. The little stunt pulled by the proctor Mitarashi Anko on the ronin Naruto and the way she cheerfully explained the rules of the test made even the non nervous genins to be a bit nervous.

The second round were self explanatory as one just had to acquire either the heaven scroll or earth scroll considering which they had in possession and gather at the tower in the middle of training area 44. It was a survival test which was going to last for the maximum of five days. The things that made the test complicated was that no one knew of who carried which scroll making all teams each other's enemies. This along with some rules and the proctor's speech made some wish they had not participated in the exams.

After receiving one of the scrolls, all team had headed to the gates which were assigned to them from which they would enter the training area.

…_With Naruto…_

Currently he was standing in front of gate 30 with the scroll placed in the utility pouch. He knew well enough that he would be a major target of most of the teams inside the forest as they would hunt/scout the other teams for the second scroll considering his team consisted of him alone. Though there would be some doubt in some teams considering that they had learned of him being in the bingo book of Sunagakure.

His eyes then went onto the watch on his hand to find that only a few seconds remained for the second round of the exams to begin. He watched as the chuunin in front of the gate bought out the key of the lock which had the door shackled signifying that his wristwatch was on time. Just as his wristwatch indicated the time to be 3:30 pm, the voice of the proctor Anko roared from the speaker at the gate.

"THE SECOND TEST OF THE CHUUNIN EXAMS… NOW BEGINS!"

The moment the gates opened, he sped inside the forest leaping from one tree to another. After a few minutes of hoping from one tree to another, he stopped in a clearing after he felt that he had travelled a good distance away from the gate.

His first priority at this point was to ascertain the locations of the other teams and if possible their plans and the scroll they carried on them. For that he would need to go scout each of the 30 teams in the exams which was a very difficult task, but for him it wasn't. Scouting and information gathering was one of his specialty… one of his favorite jutsu was the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu **and the variations of the jutsu that the Old Man had helped him create… of the variations his **Fūton Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Wind Release: Shadow Clone)** was the most perfect jutsu for scouting and information gathering purposes… it was this very jutsu that had helped him advance through the First Round of the Exam… the **Fūton Kage Bunshin** had the ability to blend in the surrounding or rather the surrounding making it impossible to detect and only the best sensors could plot it…

Taking a deep breath all the while as his hands moved through the required hand seals for the **Fūton Kage Bunshin no jutsu**… as he finished with the hand seals, he blew huge amount of chakra infused air from his mouth which gathered around and formed clones of him… eight solid clones of him were formed… and with them being his doppelgangers and knowing his plan, moved into play with each taking one of the eight directions.

Now that the clones of him were on their job, Naruto decided to use his sensory abilities to find a couple of teams for him to go against… he just hoped the teams he would find would have the scroll he required… confronting team after team and depend on his luck that he would get the required scroll at the earliest was something he didn't wish to… but at the same time didn't mind kicking as much as ass as he could… after all he declared so before the start of the First Round.

But before he could make his way towards the closest team he had sensed, he was surrounded by enemies by all four sides… and this weren't the genins participating in the exams… rather this were tigers around 15 to 20 feet in height… the residents of the forest and by their look it seemed that he had walked into their territory… and they certainly didn't like him being there… just his luck to get him in such sticky situations.

"This is not something I was expecting…" muttered Naruto as he stared directly into the eyes of the tiger which seemed to be the leader of the four… there seemed to be no way out of this other than carving his way out.

Unsealing the chokutō (similar to that of Uchiha Sasuke uses with red scabbard and matching handle with the symbol of the Uzumaki Clan on both the scabbard and the handle) he kept sealed on his right wrist… letting his chakra flow through the blade to make it more effective, he was ready to fight.

It seemed that the tigers understood his gesture as the smallest of the group sprung upon with its sharp claws and teeth ready to tear him apart.

…_With Ran…_

She and her team had entered the Training Area 44 through gate 12 and had covered a good amount of ground before encountering a ninja from other qualified teams. The ninja she and her teammates had faced was from one of the teams of Amegakure. It seemed to her that the masked ninja they face had separated from his team in order to scout potential opponents from whom his team could easily take their scroll and seeing that her team was a rookie, the masked ninja had taken his chance and failed miserably.

Sasuke with a little help from her had easily defeated the Ame-nin. But because of his quick attack they had failed to capture the masked-nin as he fled from the scene at the quickest moment possible after an injury to his left arm. She really wanted to claw the Uchiha for his arrogance because if he hadn't rushed into the attack, they could have captured the masked-nin and if luck was on their side they would have had the Earth scroll.

She didn't know what gave the Uchiha the idea, but he suddenly started acting as if he was the leader of their squad. She wanted to object, but decided to against knowing well enough that Sakura would support him blindly and she didn't want to argue with her teammates for as long as they were in the forest.

But before the team could make any decision on the tactics they would implement to find the Earth scroll, they were attacked. A huge and powerful gust of wind swept the three teammates of Team 7 in three different directions.

By the time she regained herself from the gust of wind, she could easily tell that the three of them had completely separated from each other. It was clear to her that this was an enemy-nin idea of dividing the team as she was certain that the gust of wind was a Fuuton jutsu. But she didn't have any time to think about her teammates when she found a huge shadow above her which happened to be a gigantic snake.

'Are there really these big snakes in this forest…' though Ran with fear evident in her eyes.

She didn't have much time to think as the snake charged at her with its jaws wide open. She avoided the strike by jumping away. She kept on jumping until she was certain that she would be out of the striking area of the snake until she prepared her counter-attack. She watched as the snake slithered close to her as she removed some kunai from her pouch and attached exploding tags to them.

The kunai found their target after leaving the hands of Ran and exploded right on the face of the snake. At first she thought that the explosion might be enough to take down the snake, but her father's words rang in her mind. _Always expect the unexpected_. So she quickly created a couple of **Kage Bunshins** as they too prepared some kunais which had exploding tags attached to them.

And true to her dad's words, even before the smoke cleared the snake attacked again as its tail grabbed one of her clones. But this time she was ready for the snake. The moment the snake opened its jaw to swallow the clone it had grabbed in its tail, she and the remaining clone threw the kunais directly in its open mouth. And with a big bang the head of the snake was blasted into smithereens.

She decided to not wait any longer and rushed to search for her teammates before a predator like the snake found her.

If only she had waited for even a few seconds, she could have seen the body of the snake disappear in a cloud of smoke similar to summoning animals which would have given her the idea of the danger up ahead.

…_With Naruto…_

It was now just down to Naruto and the leader of the group of the tigers as the others were already unconscious with cuts on their bodies… though none of the damage he had inflicted on them was life threatening. Throughout the fight, Naruto had also not left unharmed as he now had a large slash across the length of his left arm. Meanwhile the leader of the tigers had a vertical scar on the left side of his face (similar to Kakashi's scar) and a rather big wound on his right front leg.

The fight between the two had long since stopped since the defeat of the other tigers… the surrounding seemed to have seen better days… the destruction was one worthy site with trees uprooted and holes in the ground… and now in the clearing only stood Naruto and the leader of the tigers… and both of them just kept staring at each other waiting for the right moment to attack.

The moment of their final exchange was drawn with the last of the tigers excluding the leader fell unconscious… with that the leader gave a menacing roar and charged at him. Naruto too charged at the tiger with his chokutō outstretched he let lightning chakra flow through the blade as lightning seemed to crackle of it.

It was at the very last moment that Naruto dodged the claw strike from the leader at the very last moment and slashed the right side of the tiger with the lightning chakra enhanced blade. That slash along with numbing effect of lightning seemed to be enough as the leader dropped down with a large howl and lost the battle to consciousness.

Naruto breathed a huge sigh of relief as finally the fight was over… it really was troublesome to go against ten tigers at once that were around 15 to 20 feet in height. Sealing the chokutō back in its seal his mind pondered on the situation… somehow the tigers seemed more skilful for normal tigers… taking their height into consideration and that they lived in a forest where ninjas come to train… something he just couldn't understand. Then there was the part where he could have used another way to get out of this fight unscathed… but for some reason his guts refused to do so… using that method would had been so much easier… yet he went along with his gut feeling and fought the tigers in a fight for superiority… it was stupid of him he knew, but his gut feeling him never wrong till date, so he had went along with it.

Deciding to ponder on that a little later he worked on healing the large cut on his left arm with medical ninjutsu… and being skilled in that area it didn't take more than a couple of seconds for his wound to heal… he had no intention of fighting other team in the competition or another predator with a injured arm.

But before he could leave the clearing and walk on his path to the nearest team he felt another presence approaching him from the woods and whatever it was… it certainly wasn't human… it seemed to be moving at a relaxed pace. Unsealing the Chakra Blade once more he got ready to fight as Lightning chakra flowed through the blade.

To his utter surprise from the woods walked out a very old looking white tiger waling only on his hind legs holding a staff in one of his front legs. The tiger stood about four feet in height and a dark yellow cloak draped over his body.

'What in the world…?' Naruto couldn't help but think out loud.

"You are certainly an interesting cub…" spoke the old white tiger.

…_With Ran…_

By the time she arrived at the place where her other two teammates were, she wished she was a bit early or at the least a few seconds late. The reason for this was a sight in front of her. She watched in disgust as the Kusa-nin from earlier had somehow elongated his neck and his jaws were currently on the neck of Sasuke as it bit him on the neck. She didn't know what the Kusa-nin intended to do by biting on the neck of Sasuke, but it certainly was causing the Uchiha a hell lot of pain as she saw him trash around holding his neck.

"So the daughter of the _Yondaime Hokage_ finally arrives… so that means you were able to defeat my pet snake…" said the Kusa-nin as she now focused on Ran.

'Pet snake…' thought Ran while she jumped down to stand in front of Sasuke and Sakura (who was hugging him to make him stop from writhing around in pain).

"I must say I am impressed… to defeat my summons so quickly… you truly are your parent's child, Ran-chan", continued the Kusa-nin with a small glee in her voice.

'Summon…' "You, what did you do to Sasuke?" asked Ran as anger started to boil in her. Even though she hated the Uchiha for his arrogance and cockiness, they were still teammates.

"I just intend to give him a little present. Something which will make him seek me for power", replied the Kusa-nin.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Ran shouted seeing the sadistic grin on the Kusa-nin's face.

"That aside… At first I had no intention of confronting you as my only target was Sasuke-kun, but now that you are here… how about you show me what the daughter of the _Yondaime_ is capable of", said the Kusa-nin with a very terrifying grin on her face.

She knew that there was no escaping this situation, especially seeing the condition of Sasuke and knowing that Sakura was not going to be of any use as she seemed more concerned about Sasuke as it was now onto her to save them from this situation.

Forming the specific hand seal required for one of her most useful jutsu, five identical clones of her popped into existence next to her as she called out, "**Kage Bunshin no jutsu**."

The fight started the moment as her clones charged at the Kusa-nin with a kunai in each hand. Even at their best it was clear that the five clones were no match for the Kusa-nin as Ran watched her dodge and parry each of her clones strikes and slashes with relative ease. It was as if the Kusa-nin was playing with her which frustrated her to no extent. Attaching special sealing tags she had created to four different kunais, she too charged in the fray.

Throughout the fight which had gone for about couple of minutes, she and her clones had only been able to hurt the Kusa-nin a few times and that too couldn't be considered serious enough to damper his dodging skills. Luckily for her the Kusa-nin didn't seem much obliged on offence which helped her to execute the plan she had in mind.

She jumped back to attain some distance between herself and the Kusa-nin as her hand quickly formed the hand seals required for the jutsu. While performing the hand seals she molded as much as chakra she could into the required nature of the jutsu. Finally finishing the hand seals, she brought her fingers of her right hand to her lips in an half Ram hand seal as water gushed from her mouth like a waterfall making its way towards the Kusa-nin as she used the **Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Release: Wild Water Wave) **jutsu.

As the torrent of water made its way towards the Kusa-nin who by now had already defeated four out of her five clones, she formed a half Ram hand seal with her free left hand activating the tags on the four kunais which were now placed in four different directions with the Kusa-nin as its centre. The tags on the kunais glowed and started releasing lightning as the **Kekkai Shihō Raijin (Four-Corner Lightning Formation Barrier)** was activated binding and zapping the unsuspecting Kusa-nin and destroying the clone.

Ran watched as the Kusa-nin released a loud scream as the water from the **Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Release: Wild Water Wave) **connected with him increasing the shock form the **Kekkai Shihō Raijin (Four-Corner Lightning Formation Barrier)**. This was her strongest combo she had worked out recently and she didn't think she would need it so early. But for some reason just watching the Kusa kunoichi sent shivers down her spine that she decided that she decided to use every best possible jutsu she could use at the moment to defeat or at least stall the kunoichi.

"Kukuku… Impressive… to be able to pull off such a deadly combo… truly impressive…" the Kusa-nin said as she walked out of the combo jutsu nearly unscathed.

Ran couldn't believe her eyes, this was her best combo and yet the Kusa-nin had brushed it off as if it was nothing. The only sign that the Kusa-nin was under any attack was that the skin of her face was being peeled off as if it was a mask. This put her on the edge. She knew she had to keep attacking in hope that she might defeat or at least make a way for her and her teammates to rush out of this situation. Speaking of teammates, Sasuke was still writhing in pain while Sakura was busy trying to comfort the boy. It really irritated her seeing Sakura as she thought that she should help her find a way for them to escape this crisis rather than sit there idly holding Sasuke.

Leaving the anger at Sakura aside, she charged at the Kusa-nin. She quickly flicked a handful of kunai to whom exploding tags were attached before jumping high above the ground as her hands started forming hand seals for another jutsu which would be more effective from high ground. But before she could complete her jutsu, she watched in horror as the Kusa-nin use the **Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)** to summon a very large snake. It didn't take her much to recognize the ninja she was facing as there were only two people she knew were capable of summoning snakes in a battle. So the person in front of her would either be a new student of the Sannin Orochimaru or Orochimaru himself.

Unfortunately for her, her train of thoughts stopped there as the tail of the snake hit her directly sending her higher above where her back collided with few branches making blood splutter out of her mouth before gravity brought her down back.

"Hehehe… Go ahead and eat her", Orochimaru commanded the snake as he watched the girl barrel downwards.

On her way down seeing her death approaching by means of being eaten by the snake, Ran subconsciously tapped into the Kyuubi chakra as her eyes turned red with slits, her whiskers darkened and nails grew longer.

"Eat this!" Ran shouted as she punched the snake in the face completely shaking its base.

But before she could touch the ground, she was blasted by what seemed to her to be a Fuuton- Katon (Wind Release- Fire Release) combo. Again before she could steady herself, she was captured by the long tongue of the Kusa-nin and was brought face-to-face with the Kusa-nin.

"I see… when your emotions are heightened… the power of the Kyuubi overflows… very interesting…" she heard the Kusa-nin say as he formed a unique hand seal and his tongue lifted her kimono-like blouse enough for him to see the seal on her stomach.

"Oh my… the seal is visible…" she heard him say as his eyes lay on her seal.

Ran watched in horror as the Kusa-nin slammed his fingers of his right hand which were glowing with purple chakra directly on her seal. Just seconds later after the Kusa-nin placed the unknown seal on her seal as she lost her battle against consciousness.

…_With Sakura…_

Things looked good for her and her team since they had entered the forest as the first person they faced was defeated with ease by Sasuke-kun. Seeing the ease with which Sasuke-kun had defeated the Ame-nin, her mind had already made up an image of her and her team breezing the second test with ease. But just moments later everything had gone downhill when her team was hit by a powerful gust.

At this moment she would sincerely accept after seeing Ran selflessly fight for the team against the Kusa-nin for the team that she didn't even think of searching for her after being separated from her team by the powerful gust. She had only sought for Sasuke at that moment and only after reuniting with Sasuke did she remember of Ran because of Sasuke.

But before the two could search for her, the Kusa-nin had appeared in front of them with her eyes set on Sasuke. Only one look by the Kusa-nin, both she and Sasuke were gripped with fear to their core. For the first time she had seen death and it was only by looking into the Kusa-nin's eyes. She couldn't even react to save Sasuke when the Kusa-nin attacked him and bit down him on his neck. She only could helplessly try to calm the Sasuke who was writhing in pain while Ran fight of the Kusa-nin who had arrived just seconds after the Kusa-nin bit down Sasuke's neck.

Now not only Sasuke, but even Ran was incapacitated. It was really lucky on her part that she was able to act at the last moment when she saw the Kusa-nin throw Ran high above in the air. She flicked a kunai which caught her in midair saving her from a fate from dying from falling from high above.

"Who are you?" she couldn't help but ask the freakish Kusa-nin who seemed to be doing some fixing with her/his peeled of face.

"My name is Orochimaru… If you want to see me again, then survive and pass this exam… of course, defeating my men, the Oto-nin trio on the way", she heard his reply, though it caught her attention that he seemed to be mostly speaking to Sasuke who albeit the pain was still somehow conscious.

"What the hell are you talking about? We'd never want to see your face again!" Sakura shouted finding her voice.

"Hehe… it won't go that way…" she heard the Kusa-nin say as he/she made a hand seal which she was not familiar with.

She watched in horror as the moment the Kusa-nin formed the weird hand seal, Sasuke cried out in agony and started trashing around as if his pain was increased ten folds. Albeit all this, she didn't miss the formation of some sort of a tattoo-seal on Sasuke's neck where moments ago the Kusa-nin had bit.

"Sasuke-kun will seek me… to seek power…" she heard the Kusa-nin say.

"What did you do to Sasuke-kun?" she shouted at the Kusa-nin who seemed to be being engulfed by the ground.

"Just as I said to Ran-chan, I gave him a present", answered the Kusa-nin as he was devoured by the ground.

…_With Naruto…_

Not even a day had passed since the start of the Chuunin Selection Exams and Naruto had already received something only a few ninjas throughout the Elemental Nations could say of having. He just couldn't believe his luck as he had unknowingly stumbled upon something so precious. A really big smile plastered his face remembering the encounter with the old white tiger.

Just an hour after he had left the side of the Old White Tiger, he had come across a team from Takigakure no Sato. To say he was disappointed with that encounter was an understatement, he was royally pissed. Those idiots had gone far as to taunt him of how lowly shinobi he was and that him being in the bingo books was nothing but a fluke. It only took him a minute for take them down after the three had attacked him with the best jutsu they possibly could use, those jutsus were hardly at genin level. It was only his happy mood and them having the Earth scroll that he wanted that he left them unconscious with hardly any severe injuries to boot.

Now that he made his way towards the tower in the centre of the forest as he took his sweet, calm time that he felt a familiar chakra signature close by. His body stiffened as he felt that evil and tainted chakra that he had once sensed a couple of months back when he had been visited by one of Orochimaru's most loyal lackey. Though the feel of the tainted chakra was nowhere close to that of Kimimaro, still he knew it was better for him to investigate on the source of that tainted chakra. Focusing for a couple of seconds with his eyes closed as he expanded his senses to find the exact location of the one emitting that tainted chakra. The moment he found the exact location, with a burst of chakra to his feet he dashed in the direction where he located the ninja with Orochimaru's **Juinjutsu (Cursed Seal Technique)**.

Finally arriving at the place, he saw a sight which shocked and to some extent disgusted him. There he was, Uchiha Sasuke breaking the arms of one the Oto-nins with more than half his body covered in the markings of Orochimaru's **Juinjutsu (Cursed Seal Technique)**. It was clear that the boy was relishing the moment he snapped the arms of the Oto-nin and above all seemed to be relishing in the power that the curse mark was granting him.

Before he could decide whether he should interfere and stop the Uchiha, he watched with slack jaw as the pink haired girl hug him from behind begging him to stop and to his utter amusement the seal receded back. It made him conclude that there was still hope to save the Uchiha. But the interference of the pink haired girl made him look around to find that there were actually four teams in the clearing of which two genins were unconscious. He focused on sensing the chakra of the unconscious genins and found that there seemed nothing wrong with the boy in green jumpsuit, but the flow of the chakra in the blonde girl seemed to be in a mess. His focus was disrupted when he heard the pink haired girl scream a question at the Oto-mummy-nin and mentioned the name of Orochimaru.

'So Orochimaru is indeed here…' he thought as he watched the Oto-tri leave and couldn't help but be worried with the news he had received before deciding to enter the Chuunin Selection Exam.

As he watched the girl with Chinese-style buns hairdo on either side of her head attend to her unconscious green jumpsuit teammate and the blonde in purple attend the unconscious blonde, he wondered whether should he wait a little longer or leave now before his presence was known or make his presence known.

…_With everyone…_

Sasuke mind was completely clouded as he just couldn't figure what the hell had happened when he fought the Oto-nin. He knew that he was responsible for the defeat of the Oto-trio, but just how he couldn't fathom. While he fought the Oto-nin, he had felt a power which was not his coursing through his body and that was the puzzle he couldn't put in piece to. Where had he received that power? Suddenly he remembered the words of the fake Kusa-nin and his eyes drifted to the seal-tattoo on his neck. 'Was that the source of that power?' he wondered.

Yamanaka Ino didn't understand as to what make of the situation. She along with her teammates had come along to help Sakura after Chouji pointing out that she was in a peril and that Ran and Sasuke were unconscious. She along with Shikamaru and Chouji had confronted the Oto-trio before they dealt some serious damage to Sakura, but even their team combo had failed. Then Sasuke had entered the fight with his weird black marks on his body and weirder chakra and with ease defeated one of the Oto-nin and scared the shit out of the other. It was only timely intervention of Sakura that stopped Sasuke from going on a rampage, though she hated how she had taken the chance to hug Sasuke. Now she had taken on herself to wake up Ran. This was what had scared her the most as she saw the unconscious figure of Ran. She had known her since childhood and knew that there were hardly any things that could render the girl unconscious, especially during something so important. And to know that there was someone who was able to that to not only Sasuke, but Ran too really scared her. She gently nudged the sleeping blonde as she had long since learned the way to wake up the other blonde during their childhood stay at each other's home.

"Ino! What are you doing here?" Ran asked the moment she woke up anticipating the Kusa-nin close by, but to come fact-to-face with the blonde hair and green eyes of her childhood friend Ino.

"Me and my team and Tenten's team were here to save you guys", answered Ino.

"Save us…" muttered Ran as her eyes swept around the clearing and through to Ino's words, both Ino and Tenten's team were present. While her eyes swept across the field, she didn't miss the injuries of Rock Lee and Sakura and also Sakura's short hair.

"What in the world happened while I was unconscious?" Ran asked out loud catching the attention of Sakura.

The glare Ran shot her when she was unwilling to speak made Sakura speak like a parrot. She told Ran everything that had transpired from the time she had been rendered unconscious by the Kusa-nin who called himself Orochimaru not noticing the widening of Ran's eyes. As she recounted the events to Ran, she omitted the part of Sasuke receiving the curse mark as she saw the look in Sasuke's eyes. (Same events took place as in canon Naruto.)

A lot of things had happened since she had been rendered unconscious that Ran could understand, but to know that the Kusa-nin she fought was Orochimaru shocked her. She had thought of that possibility when she saw the Kusa-nin summon the snake, but to know it was really him was a completely different matter. She knew that Orochimaru is considered the biggest threat to Konoha and she knew that she had to go and inform her dad about him being here, but at the same time she just couldn't leave this Exams as she also a knew a lot rid on this particular exam. All that matters aside, she decided to concentrate on the exam and her team's current situation as she was certain that somehow that her dad would come to know of it. The first being that she had to thank Ino and Tenten's team, especially Lee (who had been woken up by Tenten), Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru for helping her team in their crisis. But before she could thank them, she felt a presence hiding in the nearby trees. Deciding to not take any chances she flicked the kunai in the direction of the place she felt someone hiding.

Ran's flicking a kunai towards the trees caught the eyes of few of the genins present there, but the resounding boom from the kunai got everyone's attention as they looked at the source of the explosion.

"Say, by any chance you like explosions, because most shinobis would flick a handful of kunai and shuriken at an hiding target rather than flicking a kunai with an exploding tag attached to it", Ran heard a familiar voice she had recently heard from behind her.

'When did he…?' was the thought of all the genins present there as they watched the bright red head boy with blue mask appear behind Ran.

'Yet again I couldn't sense him…' thought Sasuke with a frown on his face. He wanted to go attack the boy, but couldn't as his body did not respond to his mental command.

'I couldn't even sense him…' thought Hyuuga Neji with a frown similar to that of the Uchiha. For now he decided to wait and watch what the boy was capable of as he was certain that Namikaze would attack him.

Ran decided not to wait for answers as she quickly brought out a kunai from her pouch and went for a slash at the ronin behind her. But to her surprise he blocked her kunai with his own with relative ease and easily overpowered her.

"Now guys, I have no intention of fighting any of you", said Naruto as he watched almost everyone ready to attack him.

"Then why are you here?" asked Ino who was closest to Ran and him.

"Oh, simple really! I sensed the _tainted chakra_ released when the Uchiha went berserk and decided to come and investigate", answered Naruto as his eyes laid on the Uchiha causing the eyes of the others to widen.

"Lies… I bet you are here for our scroll…" Sakura shouted at Naruto as she wanted to completely deny his accusations of Sasuke posing tainted chakra.

"You know I am not lying (looking at Sakura)… apart from her (pointing at Ran), you all saw the Uchiha use it…and as for the scroll, I already have both", replied Naruto as he fiercely gazed at Sakura making her flinch.

The news of him having both the scrolls everyone's attention, but it dwarfed at his mention of them seeing the use of the tainted chakra by the Uchiha. It was true; they had all seen it except Ran.

"How about as a show of good faith, I help your team…" said Naruto startling everyone.

"Your chakra it is all messed up isn't it?" asked Naruto directly looking at Ran to the surprise of everyone.

"How did you…?" muttered Ran in a low voice which only Naruto could hear. She had felt it from the moment she had awakened that the flow of chakra in her chakra coils was all messed up and only because of her huge chakra reserve was she able to still access her chakra.

"Sensory-nin…" Naruto answered simply.

"I see…" muttered Ran.

"So how do you intend to help us?" asked Ran as she relaxed a bit yet being on guard.

"If I am not mistaken, the disturbance in your chakra flow must be because of some seal that Orochimaru placed on you during your teams encounter with him", answered Naruto with a serious look on his face.

Ran was stunned, as the boy had with such ease depicted the cause of the disturbance in her chakra flow. Normally she would have been on guard on someone who knew so much, especially if the person was not on the scene, but the look in his eyes it reminded her so much of her dad when he was serious while he fought for something precious to him that it made her relax.

"Yes", she replied.

"Can I see it?" asked Naruto.

Ran knew that she shouldn't be doing this, but she was doing it. She knew she shouldn't trust a complete stranger, but she was. She lifted her blouse exposing her stomach to the bright red haired boy in front of her, enough for him to see the seal that Orochimaru placed on her. She then started molding her chakra for making the seal visible. She knew by doing this she was also exposing the **Hakke no Fuuin (Eight Trigrams Seal)** that was keeping the **Kyuubi no Youko (Nine-Tailed Demon Fox) **at bay. A small blush crept on her face as she watched Naruto stare at the stomach (seal) with intense concentration.

"Beautiful…" the word subconsciously left Naruto's mouth.

"W-What!" stuttered Ran as he heard the word that left Naruto's lips as her face started heating up with more intensity.

On the side, all the genins were dumbfounded, especially those who were friends with Ran, to see her act the way she was currently and especially the blush on her face, they were having a mental breakdown.

Oblivious to world around him, Naruto kept on analyzing Ran's seal, "No wonder… to be able to combine two **Shishō Fuuin (Four Symbols Seal)** and forming a stronger and more potent seal… the Yondaime Hokage truly is one of the greatest Seal Masters to grace the shinobi world…"

The entire blush on Ran's face vanished in a second and her face heated up in annoyance as a tick mark appeared on her forehead as she heard him speak about the **Hakke no Fuuin (Eight Trigrams Seal) **as if it was his long lost lover. Meanwhile the others face faulted at what they heard him say as none had much knowledge on Fuuinjutsu.

Still oblivious to the people around him, Naruto continued speaking "… And on top of it… the **Gogyō Fuuin (Five Elements Seal)**… it must be placed by Orochimaru… an even and odd sealing methods on top of each other… no wonder your chakra is a mess…"

Directly looking into the eyes of Ran, startling her, he formed a specialized hand seal as he said with a serious voice, "Brace yourself."

"What do you…?" Ran couldn't complete her question as she watched Naruto's finger glow with blue chakra and different characters appearing on his fingers similar to Orochimaru. Before she could ask what he intended to do, he slammed his fingers on her stomach and she understood why he had ordered her to brace herself as the moment he had slammed his fingers into her stomach she felt as if hit by a one of mom's punch. Kushina had one hell of a right hook.

"What did you do to Ran?" asked Ino as looked at the kneeling form of Ran as she held her stomach as if in great pain. Even though her friendship with Ran had not been similar to that when they were children since she didn't approve of her stupidly idolizing the Uchiha, she was still her friend. She just like the others got into a fighting stance to fight the ronin if it would come to it.

Completely disregarding the others who had taken a fighting stance, Naruto held out his hand for Ran who took it and stood up. "I believe your problem should be solved", Naruto said.

"Yes…" answered Ran as she could feel her chakra flow and control back to the way it was before the fight with Orochimaru.

"What did you do?" Ran couldn't help but ask.

"Oh… I just used a counter seal **Gogyō Kaiin (Five Elements Unseal)** which removed the **Gogyō Fuuin (Five Elements Seal) **Orochimaru placed over you", answered Naruto.

"Thanks", Ran replied with utmost sincerity. But on the inside she was awed at his skills at Fuuinjutsu as she had heard of the **Gogyō Fuuin (Five Elements Seal) **and **Gogyō Kaiin (Five Elements Unseal) **and it required great skill to use those jutsus. And as far as she knew, only her parents, Ero-jii-san, Tsunade-baa-chan and Sandaime-O-jii-san were capable of using the two jutsus.

"How about this… as thanks the two of us could hitch a date when we get a break from the exams", said Naruto to the shock of everyone present.

Ran was completely dumbfounded. The first time he had asked her out or rather one of the three (Hinata, Ino and her) on a date, she knew it was to aggravate Temari. But this time there was no such thing as he was actually asking her out on a date. Being the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage no boy had tried to hit on her and even then she had no interest in the boys around her age she had known so far, but so couldn't be said about Naruto. The boy had been on her mind since the day she had seen him and had developed a little interest in him.

Seeing no response been given for a couple of minutes Naruto spoke in a dejected tone, "Well it seems a no…"

'No, it is not a NO, it is a YES… SPEAK UP YOU IDIOT…' Ran berated herself but no voice left her mouth.

The dejected Naruto didn't last longer as he perked up and directly facing Ino, Sakura and Tenten and said, "Since she is a no (pointing at Ran)… how about one of you?"

The girls were surprised at this person standing in front of him asking them on a date after being _hopefully rejected_ by Ran. But before any of the three could reject him, though hesitantly, they all felt a very terrifying aura behind the blonde which was being emanated by Ran.

"It just like that girl Temari said, you are a FLIRT!" Ran cried out as she tried to punch the blonde who easily dodged her enraged punch.

Dodging, avoiding and parrying Ran's onslaught of punches Naruto said, "I disagree… I am no flirt… it is just that I can't decide on a single girl with so many beautiful girls around."

That answer stopped Ran in her track enough for Naruto to escape her proximity and stand at a length which would certain his escape. Meanwhile all the girls in the clearing had a blush on their face at the words of Naruto. As for the boys, Shikamaru, Chouji and Lee were enjoying popcorn which the chubby Akimichi brought out of nowhere and Sasuke and Neji didn't seem to care.

"Your accusations aside (looking at Ran who had a tick mark on her forehead)… I can help the Uchiha by sealing away the curse mark, but it will take some time and render him unconscious for a couple of days… but because of this test we don't have that much time, so take him to your sensei the minute this test ends" said Naruto with a serious look on his face which left no room for any reply.

"Serious talk's aside… the offer still is valid for all four of you…" Naruto said with a huge grin behind the mask.

"See you guys at the tower", Naruto called out as he watched Ran burn with anger and dashed towards the direction of the tower.

"That…. that… Flirt…" Ran muttered in anger as she watched the red head disappear.

"You had decided to agree to go on a date with him, hadn't you?" Ino whispered into her ears for only her to hear.

"Indeed I did", Ran said out loud.

The snickering of Ino brought her back to the right state of mind as she understood what she had just blurted out and she went on damage control as she said, "I mean that I was going to pound him for his flirting."

"But you aren't denying to what I asked to you", replied Ino as her giggles increased.

"It's nothing like that", shouted Ran.

"You can't fool me Ran", said Ino.

Meanwhile at the sidelines the trio of Lee, Chouji and Shikamaru were enjoying the show that was taking place in front of them. The fight of words between Ino and Ran was getting more interesting and at some point Tenten and Sakura had joined sides with Ino too.

"This is better than any show I have ever watched", said Chouji munching down handful of popcorn.

"Their flames of youth are burning with the intensity of the sun", Lee added his penny of thought.

"Troublesome… are lives were already enough troublesome… but with that boy's intrusion it will be more troublesome then ever", said Shikamaru as he watched the argument heat up with Ino deciding that she wouldn't mind dating the red head.

…_With Naruto…_

In less than an hour after separating from the group Naruto arrived at the tower in the centre of forest. He with a small disappointed look on his walked inside the room which seemed to be assigned for him which when entered was completely empty. He had thought that there would be get to see the violet haired proctor wearing the mesh body suit that showed her form perfectly after arriving at the tower, but it was just his thought after all.

Inside the empty room, the big scroll that was attached on the wall directly opposite from the entrance door caught his attention. It was not exactly the scroll, but what was written on it was what garnered his interests.

If you lack HEAVEN, seek wisdom, be prepared. If you lack EARTH, run in the fields, seek advantage. And if you HEAVEN and EARTH, you can succeed in even the most dangerous mission. These rules will guide a - extreme.

It only took a glance at the scroll for him to understand that this had something to do with the two scrolls as the words Heaven and Earth were highlighted on that large scroll. It seemed to him that he was supposed to open the two scrolls. Bringing out the scroll, in one swift motion he unfurled the scrolls. But the moment he opened the scroll, his eyes widen at the seal for a teleportation jutsu inscribed on the two scrolls with the kanji for person at the seals centre. Quickly placing the two scrolls on the ground, he quickly jumped back forming some distance between him and the scrolls.

With a small bang and a lot of smoke, a person stood where Naruto had placed the two scrolls. When the smoke cleared, Naruto's eyes lay on one of the most beautiful women he had seen in his entire life. She was wearing the standard Konohagakure jounin outfit. But what caught his major attention was her bright red hair whose shade was similar to his.

Now that he thought about it clearly, he seemed to remember her from somewhere as his mind took a look at her smiling face. Then it came to him that he had seen her when he had peeked upon the onsen here at Konohagakure on his first day here, the woman in front of him was there at the bath house. _Yes, that's where he had seen her_. But something inside him was telling him that was not the only time which he just shrugged of considering he would remember someone as beautiful as this woman if he had seen her before.

He was a pervert, which he would admit. It was the fault of the old man. He had from a young age thought him to appreciate the art, whether manmade or created by nature and according to him women/girls were the most precious and beautiful creation of nature. Also introducing him to the world of Icha-Icha was another step towards sending him joining the world of perverts. Though he had learned how to control his inner pervert self unlike the old man or Jiraya.

But for some unknown reason there was not even a hint of perverseness in his thoughts as he looked at the woman in front of her. Now that he thought about it, it was similar during the bath house incident. At that time instead of staring at the curves of the woman, he kept on staring at her face as if searching for something. Heck, he even felt a bit nervous when she had asked him a simple question. He just chalked it to be because of the age gap, which he knew was just his idea of answering his questions and feelings which had no answers and no meaning. The feeling of warmth that was filling his heart seeing the woman smile at him just had no meaning to it or to simply put it, he didn't understand why.

Though to all his thoughts he completely missed the torrents of emotions run through the violet orbs of the Kushina at seeing him. Somehow Kushina was able to keep the outer façade of calm and gentle while on the inside she was holding herself back from holding the boy in her arms.

"Not that I mind company, but you wouldn't happen to be on some sort of congratulatory committee for the genin teams who pass this round", said Naruto breaking the silence between the two.

Kushina was quite astounded by Naruto's perceptiveness, though she couldn't help but a small laughter left her lips at the sarcasm that dripped his words even after they were meant for their brilliant idea of surprising the genins.

"Yes… Yes I am", Kushina replied still giggles escaping her lips.

Even Naruto couldn't help it as a small smile graced his lips as he heard the woman laugh; it somehow made him happy too.

"So… ehh…" Naruto said unsure about what next.

"Yes… right…" Kushina scratched the back of her head in embarrassment as she had completely forgotten the reason she was here "… Congratulations are in order of you passing the test within 24 hours Naruto-kun…" she saw him stiffen a bit at her using his name "… You don't mind me calling you Naruto-kun, do you?"

"N-No… No, it is fine… ehh…" replied Naruto though he felt strangely happy.

"Oh right… My name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina", she replied and was not the surprised to see his eyes widen.

"**Akai Chishio no Habanero (Red Hot-Blooded Habanero)**!" Naruto muttered as he looked at the woman in awe. He had heard of her from the old man and also knew that she was one of the strongest and most feared kunoichi of all times.

This did surprise Kushina; she had expected him to recall her as the wife of the Yondaime Hokage and not as the title she received when she was in the academy and had attached to her throughout her carrier.

"So… Is that all?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, no! I am supposed to also tell you the meaning of the motto of the Chuunin written by Sandaime Hokage-sama… The Heaven in the motto refers to Human Mind and the Earth refers to Human Body…" she said as she started explaining the motto, but abruptly stopped when she heard the words that left the mouth of Naruto.

"Yin and Yang… so that's how it is…" muttered Naruto as it didn't take much time for him to understand the motto after the reference that Kushina gave.

"You understand?" she asked with a questioning look.

"It means that if you have shortage of one you should train harder for it and only a balance of the two will see you to greatness. If I am not mistaken, the missing word from the line '**These rules will guide a - extreme**' must be either **shinobi** or **person**", replied Naruto completely stunning Kushina.

"Y-Yes, that's what it means", replied a dumbfounded Kushina.

"So… What I am supposed to do for the next four days of the test?" asked Naruto.

"You will have to stay at the tower for the next four days until the test is over…" she answered.

"… And you aren't allowed to leave the tower", she added seeing the glint in the blue eyes of Naruto which faded away at her words which caused her to chuckle further.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**Finally a big puzzle that had pieced my mind about this story was solved. As stated in the summary, Naruto will possess Kekkei Genkai and I intended it to be more than one. The question was how many and the puzzle was which ones. Finally both question and puzzle was solved. Naruto will possess 4 Kekkei Genkai… though you will have to wait for which one's he would posses. **

**Also he might possess some Hiden jutsus too.**


	4. Preliminary Round!

**Preliminary Round!**

Naruto for the last four days stayed out of sight of every ninja present at the Tower of which most of his time was spent in his room meditating to calm himself. In just a single day inside the forest, his life was changed. Meeting with the Old White Tiger had opened a new realm of jutsus for Naruto to get acquainted with and add to his arsenal in his near future. Though he never expected to come across tigers who were part of the Tiger Clan of the summon realms just out of the blue.

Unexpected or expected, to Naruto acquiring the right to summon members of the Tiger Clan was one of the greatest treasures he had received in his young life. Acquiring a summoning contract was one of the toughest tasks in the Shinobi World as only a few shinobis throughout the world held the contracts and were mostly passed down family line or to the ninja's apprentice. Also acquiring the contracts not only gave you the right to summon the animals to your aide, but it also allowed one to learn some of the summon clan's unique abilities. It really made him want to try out the **Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)** at this moment, but as he promised to the Old White Tiger, he would wait till the break in the Exams.

Also there was the matter of Orochimaru on his mind. To learn that he was here at Konoha made him feel a bit antsy… for the past six months he had at least come across a dozen of Oto-nins who had come to him with a proposal to join Orochimaru. He had been able to easily avoid them or a couple or so times had taken them down seeing that they were not living his tail even after his refusal. It was the last ninja from Oto that he had come across had made it clear how much serious was Orochimaru in making him join him. The person was Kimimaro, one of Orochimaru's elite. Apparently Orochimaru wanted him for something big he had planned for Konoha and it was only because of what seemed like a diseases infecting Kimimaro in middle of their fight gave Naruto the perfect opportunity to strike him down and escape after hearing of the Sound Four being close by… he had no intention of letting Orochimaru know his true capability and secrets and so had toned down in his encounter with Kimimaro. It was one of the reasons that he had joined the Chuunin Selection Exam.

For the time he moved out of his room, he mostly stayed in the shadows as he had no interests of alleviating the tension between him and Gaara. Gaara and his siblings had arrived at the tower in less than two hours as per his information and when he had come across the red head, it was clear that his urge to kill someone was clear as sunlight with a clear summer sky. Seriously he had to wonder as to what was holding him back from hurting someone.

As for his information network, his **Fūton Kage Bunshins** had gathered a good amount of data on all the participating teams. Information on which of the teams had passed the exams to the skills they used, thus giving him an estimate of the possible skills of the teams who were left in the exams. This certainly would prove favorable to him.

Currently he was standing alongside the 8 teams that had passed the second test. Those eight teams consisted of five teams from Konoha and one from Suna, Oto and Iwa each. In front of them stood the Sandaime Hokage along with the Yondaime Hokage to his right and his students – Senju Tsunade and Jiraiya to his left and Uzumaki Kushina to the right of the Yondaime. They were accompanied by the proctors of the exams in the front row while the second row was occupied by the jounin-sensei of the teams that passed the second round.

"Congratulations on passing!" Anko's voice could be heard through the speakers.

…_With the proctors, jounins and kages…_

'Hehe… Among the 91 participants, for 25 to get this far… I said I'd cut them in half, but I was expecting single digits…' thought Anko as she eyed the teams. She certainly was impressed.

"Good, your team passed too Kakashi…" Gai spoke as he kept his eyes fixed on the contestants "… they are good. But as long as my team is around, getting any further is impossible. Since from now on it's all about real ability and I am certain that my team is more skilled than yours…" his eyes then shifted towards Kakashi "… Well, with youth there are sweet times and there are sour times, eh Kakashi…"

"Huh? You say something, Gai?" asked Kakashi with a look that clearly said that he didn't hear a thing.

'Heh… Not bad, my rival Kakashi… You're cool in that way and it really gets on my nerve…' thought Gai as he looked away from Kakashi and cursed the masked-jounins hip attitude.

'Gaara is unscathed… of course… but for Naruto to be here… I hope Gaara stays to the orders passed on by Kazekage-sama…' thought Baki as he eyed his team and Naruto.

'Akamaru is strange…' Kurenai Yuuhi thought as she watched the small white dog shaking a bit as he was hiding in the jacket of Inuzuka Kiba.

'At least the three put their differences aside and passed this test… after all it is important for both the future of Konoha and Iwa' thought the Iwa-jounin as he looked at his team with a proud look.

Meanwhile the Oto-jounin had his eyes fixed on genins which were not his own, them being Uchiha Sasuke, Yakushi Kabuto and Naruto.

'For this many to make it this far and most of them being rookies…' thought Sandaime Hokage as his eyes travelled through all the genins that had passed.

"… No wonder they all nominated them…" Sandaime spoke the next words out loud enough for the people standing next to him to hear as looked at the jounins behind him.

"True enough", said the Yondaime Hokage as too shared the same thought as the Sandaime.

"It makes me remember the time when Minato took the exams… he too passed the exams on his first time", said Jiraiya as he remembered those days.

"And it certainly seems likes that some of the rookies here are going to accomplish what Minato did at the Chuunin Exams…" commented Tsunade as she eyed a few of the rookie genins.

All this while Kushina just stayed silent as she just had her eyes out for three genins out of the lot, one being her daughter Ran and the other being the one she considered as important as her daughter – Hinata and last was the ronin Naruto who she was certain was her son.

"HOKAGE-SAMA WILL NOW EXPLAIN THE THIRD TEST! LISTEN CAREFULLY!" Anko shouted through the microphone for all present to hear.

…_With Naruto…_

For years Naruto had wondered why there existed something like the Chuunin Exams in which Konoha and its allied nations would bring their genins together and compete. What was the true purpose of the Exams? That question had always plagued his mind since he heard of the existence of the Exams. It was clear that the old man knew the reason, but he never shared it with him. But today everything had been clear when the Yondaime Hokage spoke as he clarified the true reasons of the exams (the same speech as the Sandaime Hokage). Such a brilliant way of avoiding wars, Sandaime Hokage truly deserved the title of **The Professor**.

It did come to him as a surprise when the proctor of the third round made his appearance and mentioned that there was going to be a preliminary right here, right now. The reason given of the sudden round was sound, but he had to wonder whether the proctor was ready to take the exams. He looked seriously ill.

When the option of quitting was given, only one of the 25 present took it. The one to quit was Yakushi Kabuto, which didn't come as a surprise to Naruto as he from the beginning had felt that there was something clearly going on with him. It seemed that even the proctors shared his view point.

Then there was the case where he saw the Uchiha's pink-haired teammate ask him to quit in concerns with the curse mark, which the Uchiha declined. But when she tried to open her mouth to tell the proctors, he shot her down by his words weaving a tale of him being an avenger and wanting to face strong people. Seriously that Uchiha was too much of a stuck-up to not see his condition.

Finally the preliminaries had started and now he stood on the balcony like upper level as he watched the first match going underway. Uchiha Sasuke versus Akadō Yoroi. From the get-go the match was one-sided with Yoroi dominating the fight. The jutsu which Yoroi was using seemed to be draining Uchiha's chakra and without use of chakra, the Uchiha's movements were very restricted. The Uchiha was forced on the defensive. It was only after a sarcastic comment by his blonde teammate which she shouted out for all to hear did the Uchiha go on the offensive. The taijutsu maneuver that the Uchiha pulled off next ended the match in a couple of hits, but it was also clear that was an on-the-go thought up move since his body didn't seem to take the strain of the move. Also judging by the reactions of the green-jumpsuit genin-jounin duo, there was more to the move than met the eye. But the plus point of the match was the ability the Uchiha showed by suppressing the curse seal which had activated in middle of the taijutsu maneuver. As soon as the match was over, the Uchiha was taken away by Hatake Kakashi, who seemed to be the Uchiha's team's jounin-sensei to seal away the curse mark.

Next was the fight between Aburame Shino versus Zaku Abumi. Just like the previous match, this too was completely one-sided. Though unlike the first match, the one having the disadvantage pulled no miraculous victory as even Zaku's act of being handicapped by one arm proved worthless as Shino was always a step ahead of him. It was complete strategic victory on part of Shino. He had previously heard about Konoha's Aburame clan, but finally to see one in action was completely different, it was a bit creepy.

The next fight was one that Naruto was looking forward to, or to be exact to see how far one of the fighters had come in term of skills. It was Kankurou versus Tsurugi Misumi. Unfortunately Kankurou's opponent wasn't able to differentiate between Kankurou and his puppet and that turned out to be his loss. Though Misumi's **Nan no Kaizō (Soft Physique Modification)** jutsu did intrigue him.

It was during this match, he saw Kakashi return to the arena without the Uchiha. It seemed that whatever seal Kakashi might have used to seal away the curse mark must have rendered the Uchiha incapacitated. It was also during the disappearance of Kakashi and the Uchiha; he had seen the Oto-jounin also take his leave.

The next pair-up by was the most interesting as the electronic board paired the granddaughter of the Sandaime Tsuchikage – Kurotsuchi and the student of the famed Copy-nin Kakashi – Haruno Sakura.

…_With everyone…_

'This isn't going to be good…' thought Kakashi as he saw that one of his students was paired with an Iwa-genin which happened to be the granddaughter of the Sandaime Tsuchikage. If it were either Sasuke or Ran, he knew that it would be a match to watch, but he couldn't say the same for Sakura. He just hoped that the girl had taken her training seriously and learned a couple of things from the scroll he had handed to her.

'I hope you take her seriously Kurotsuchi… Even though that girl doesn't seem much, but she is the student of Hatake Kakashi…' thought the Iwa-jounin as he watched Kurotsuchi and Sakura stare at each other.

Those two were not the only ones eagerly waiting for this match to start as almost all present had their eyes on this match as everyone wanted to see the true caliber of the granddaughter of Ōnoki.

Even though on the outside Sakura looked completely calm, but on the inside she was a bit afraid of the girl standing in front of her. The way the Iwa-kunoichi carried herself screamed of her confidence in herself and her skills and being the intelligent one, she was certain that the Iwa-kunoichi would be skilled seeing that she was the member of the only team from Iwagakure no Sato to participate in the exams. But she held onto a faced of the calm on the outside as a victory here would solidify her path towards the heart of Sasuke-kun and she will also show Ino that she was no pushover.

Meanwhile Kurotsuchi eyed her opponent with a calculating gaze. She could already tell that the pink haired girl had no such skills that she had to worry about and was a fan girl to boot, but also knew that it was not good to judge her by her appearance since the pink haired girl was the student of the legendary Copy-nin Kakashi. She decided to hold her judgment on pinky after initial confrontation.

"BEGIN!" Gekkō Hayate called out loud to start the fourth match.

Sakura was the first to make her move as she charged at Kurotsuchi. While charging at the Iwa-kunoichi, her hands weaved through a set of seals for one of the most basic jutsus.

'**Bunshin no Jutsu**…! What is she planning?' Kurotsuchi wondered as she saw the pinky weave through hand seals and producing two clones that charged at her along with the original. She stood her ground as she watched the pinky and clones steadily approaching her trying to figure out the girl's plan as using something as basic as the clone technique wasn't going to work against her. She didn't have to wait long as she watched the pinky form the Ram hand seal and focus her chakra on the sole of her feet.

'All chakra to the feet…' thought Sakura as she formed the Ram hand seal to focus her chakra to the sole of her feet as Kakashi-sensei had taught them during the tree climbing exercise.

'And explode of the ground' Sakura thought as she felt her chakra focused at the sole of the feet which she used to greatly increase her speed as she charged at the Iwa-kunoichi.

…_With the spectators…_

Kakashi was quite surprised by the maneuver Sakura pulled as it showed that she too had potential of thinking quickly on her feet. Also it reinforced his belief that she had perfect chakra control.

'Beautiful movement, Sakura-san…' thought Rock Lee with awed look as Sakura's fist connected with the Iwa-kunoichi's face.

'Fast' thought Ino as she saw her long time rival execute the taijutsu maneuver. She had to hand it to the girl as she had grown strong in the past years, especially since the teams were formed.

But the joy of everyone who supported Sakura didn't last long as they watched that the Iwa-kunoichi that had stumbled back by the punch turned into a block of wood.

…_Back with Sakura and Kurotsuchi…_

"Wha…?" Sakura said completely surprised that the one she punched happened to be a block of wood.

Sakura didn't have much time to think on some new strategy as a very powerful punch was delivered to her guts making her cough out some blood as she kneeled on the ground holding her stomach.

"What did you think that only you were capable of outsmarting your opponent by a basic ninjutsu?" asked Kurotsuchi as she stood a few steps away from the kneeling figure of Sakura. She was thoroughly disappointed in the girl as the girl was bowled down by a single punch which showed lack of physical training.

"Quit now if that was the best you could do…" said Kurotsuchi to the pinky.

Somehow Sakura got up despite the pain she was feeling through the punch. This was not the time for her to give up even after she knew that she had no other useful skills to go against the Iwa-kunoichi. She cursed herself for neither taking her physical training seriously nor trying to learn any of the jutsus from the scroll that Kakashi-sensei had given her as she instead spend her time trying to vow or follow Sasuke-kun. With the will to not loose here, she charged at her opponent and engaged her in a close quarter combat.

…_With the spectators…_

It had been a couple of minutes since Sakura engaged Kurotsuchi in close quarter combats and it was evidently clear that Kurotsuchi was way better than Sakura. Be it taijutsu or use of weapons, Kurotsuchi outclassed Sakura in all expects as Sakura was unable to land a single hit on Kurotsuchi, while the superiority of Kurotsuchi could be seen with the bruises all over Sakura's body.

'It is clear that Sakura skills have grown from the time she became a genin, but they seem to be no match to the granddaughter of the Sandaime Tsuchikage…' thought Kakashi as he watched his student being completely dominated in the fight against a superior opponent.

'Sakura-san is good… but her opponent seems to be far away from her reach…' thought Lee as he looked at the one-sided match.

'Sakura…' thought Ino as she looked worried at the fate of her another friend whom she had deserted because of Sasuke.

'Troublesome… Sakura never stood a chance against that Iwa-kunoichi…' thought Shikamaru with a bored look.

'Ran did report me that Kakashi was not at all acting like a jounin-sensei should as he always kept busy himself with reading his books or slacking off… I brushed of her comments thinking he gave more focus on the other two seeing we were there to teach Ran… but seeing Sakura now… I need to have a word with Kakashi…' thought Minato as he watched the fight.

'Is she truly the student of the Copy-nin Kakashi…?' thought the Iwa-jounin.

…_With Kurotsuchi…_

Kurotsuchi was getting frustrated with the girl she was fighting. The pinky was a stain to the name of kunoichis who stood in toe-to-toe with their male counterparts in her opinion. Even after being the student of the famed Copy-nin, the girl had no notable skill to boot… heck, the pinky's skills were not even close to that of a genin, even pinky's taijutsu skills could not be considered on par with an average genin. She had enough and with one powerful punch to the pinky's face, which knocked the daylight of the pinky causing a frown to appear on her face as she was declared the winner. She just wished that the next time she had to fight it better be someone with skills or she was certain that she would go berserk.

'What did I deserve to get a weak opponent…' she though with a frown on her face as she made her way towards the balcony to join her team as the pinky's jounin-sensei took the pinky to the side of the balcony they were on. After all she hadn't hurt her to the extent that she needed medical attention as she thought that the girl was not worth her time and skills.

…_With Naruto…_

If he thought that the first three matches were not much to watch or one-sided, he just had no words for the match between Kurotsuchi and Sakura. The pink haired Konoha-kunoichi stood no chance against the black haired Iwa-kunoichi.

'Seriously, didn't she learn a single thing from the Copy-nin?' wondered Naruto as he watched the masked jounin carry away his student.

The next match between Kin Tsuchi and Nara Shikamaru was the most laziest yet strategic match he had seen after the match of the Aburame. With the use of the surroundings, he watched the Nara score a simple yet a very clever victory even after being at the disadvantage of his enemy already knowing his jutsu. Looking around he found that it was not just him, but almost all jounins, proctors, Kages and some genins also seemed impressed by the victory.

The next match pitted Temari against Tenten, a match he certainly was eager to see. Unlike couple of rookie Konoha-kunoichis in this round of whom he seriously doubted had the skills to be here, he knew the bun haired girl had skills and as he had thought, Tenten had skills. But unfortunately for Tenten, Temari was the worst opponent she could have gotten as the Fūton jutsus that Temari wielded through her giant folding fan completely negated all of Tenten's weapon skills. It was the worst matchup. The match ended with Temari using the fan to trap Tenten in a cyclone and propel her into the air with the help of the **Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Technique)**. He watched with a small scowl on his face as he watched Temari made sure to land Tenten on her closed fan rendering the bun haired girl unconscious.

He had come to know Temari well enough in his time he had spent at Sunagakure and had been one of the few who had seen past her cruel side. Temari had a caring side to her which he was certain that something that only he could boast about that he was the only one to see it. To almost everyone she was the personification of cruelest of kunoichis. But seeing Temari acting in such a cruel manner during this exam where there was so much at stake did make him wonder as to what she was up to.

The confrontation that happened between the Konoha-genin wearing green jumpsuit and Temari after Temari threw Tenten off of the fan in an attempt to have her land on the many weapons on the ground. He seriously wanted to step down there, especially when Lee charged at Temari, but didn't as his mind told him that something bug was going on for Temari to act in a such a way. He knew that Temari held people with skills in high regards and even though the match was one-sided, Tenten had shown some impressive skills.

'What is going on?' he couldn't help but wonder.

…_With Temari…_

She didn't like what she had tried to do with her opponent, but she knew it was a necessary action. She along with her siblings were here to make a point before the big plan took place and for that she had too show the cruel side of her. She just wished that her opponent had been that pink haired Konoha-kunoichi instead of the bun haired girl she faced as she wouldn't have minded doing the same action with the pinky. The pinky in her eyes was a disgrace to the name of kunoichis all around. It was this reason that it was a bit harder for her to be cruel to the bun haired girl that showed skills and talent, something she respected.

As she made her way to join her team on the balcony stand, her dark green eyes met bright blue eyes for a glimpse of a second. She would have been content in seeing either anger or disappointment in those blue eyes for what she did; at least she knew in her mind that what she did was necessary action for the stand of her village. Also she knew that there was no way that she would see pride or happiness in those eyes after the stunt she pulled as even as short they had known each other, she knew that he never approved of hurting others without a rational reason. So one could easily tell how surprised she was when she saw the neutral look in his eyes, those blue orbs held no warmth or cold and not a single hint of emotion.

…_With the spectators…_

The next match decided by the electronic board pitted Suzumebachi against Hyuuga Hinata.

"If I am not mistaken, isn't that Suzumebachi girl of the Kamizuru clan of Iwagakure?" asked Jiraya to the people standing next to him.

"Yes", replied the Sandaime.

"This doesn't look good for Hinata… If I am not mistaken some of the secret techniques of the Kamizuru clan are very effective against close combat practitioners", said Jiraya with a small bit of worry for his goddaughter's best friend.

"Yes they are… but you don't need to worry about Hinata as while training alongside Ran she developed some jutsus with the help of the gentle fist completely unique to her", replied Tsunade which caught curiosity of both the Sandaime and Jiraya.

"Just wait and watch Jiraya… wait and watch…" added Kushina with a small smirk gracing her lips as she was confident in Hinata's skills.

Meanwhile Kurenai watched her student with a bit of concern as she just learned from Kakashi of the opponent she was going to face. As most who knew Hinata, she too was confident in her student's skills, but learning that her opponent had ability similar to another one of her student and specialized in long range combat, she couldn't help but be concerned as Hinata specialized in close range combat.

"Don't worry Kurenai-sensei, Hinata will definitely win this", Ran said to Kurenai as she saw the small look of concern of Kurenai's face. Whatever the situation, she was going to stand by her best friend side no matter what.

"Indeed", Kurenai replied with confidence.

'It is time for you to show the world that you are no pushover, Hinata' was the same thought that ran through Ran and Kurenai's mind.

As this match was called to begin by Hayate, a lot of eyes were fixed on the result of the match. Most present eyes were focused on the Hyuuga heiress and see her skills as a few of them cheered for her. One Hyuuga Neji looked down at the match with a small scowl on his face as he watched the fight about to go underway.

…_With Hinata and Suzumebachi…_

"Begin", Hayate called out.

The moment Hayate called out for the match to begin, Hinata hands quickly flipped through some seals as she activated the **Byakugan** and slid into the basic **Jūken**stance.

As for Suzumebachi, the moment she saw her opponent activate those eyes and slid into a unique taijutsu stance, a small smirk spread on her lips as she was now certain of her victory.

"Give up girlie, you are no match for me", said Suzumebachi with a haughty tone.

"That I won't know until we try…" said Hinata in a confident voice as she charged at her opponent.

Suzumebachi was completely caught off guard at the sudden charge by the dark-blue haired girl. She knew that her clan's jutsus were one which were the most potent against shinobis who relied on close range combat and thus it was a well known fact that the Hyuuga clan which highly relied on the **Jūken** and closed quarters fighting were easy targets for them. But now facing a Hyuuga did she finally understand that why it was always encouraged that it was never wise to engage a Hyuuga in a close quarter fight. She was hard pressed to dodge the fast and lethal strikes of the girl who somehow was able to twist and turn at surprising speeds showing that she had great flexibility. All the while she tried to dodge the girl and regain some distance from her; the girl had managed to hit her with some of her palm strikes. Though none of her strikes were lethal as they were just small taps on her body and didn't hit any vital organ, the pain where the girl had struck was unbearable.

"Why you…?" growled Suzumebachi in a bit of pain as she was finally able to acquire some distance from her opponent.

"Remember this… I may not be the strongest among the genins present here… but I won't give up without a fight…" declared Hinata loud enough for all to hear.

…_With the spectators…_

Kurenai couldn't help as a small smile full of pride appeared on her face as she watched the shy princess stand for herself with confidence. Hinata had come a long way in her eyes since the day she was in charge of looking after her from the time of the academy. She knew that it was only through the help of Kushina-sama, Tsunade-sama and Ran that she was able to see the Hinata currently fighting.

"That's the way Hinata! Show them how awesome you are!" shouted Ran as she channeled her mother.

"Whoa! Was Hinata ever that cool!" said a surprised Ino as she remembered the shy, timid and soft-spoken Hinata from the academy days and even before that.

"Hohoho… That is some declaration… but can she back it up…" said Jiraya as he saw the colony of bees that now surrounded Suzumebachi.

…_With Hinata and Suzumebachi…_

"Brave words, but can you back them up", Suzumebachi said in a challenging tone as her hand weaved through a set of seals.

"**Hachimitsu no Jutsu (Bee Honey Technique)**_**…**_" Suzumebachi called out as she finished weaving through the seals and held her hand outwards in the direction of Hinata. From her sleeves were released a countless numbers of bees that made a beeline to attack Hinata.

"Bees!" said a surprised Hinata as she quickly removed a kunai from her pouch and defended herself against the bees as she was uncertain as to how the **Jūken** would fair against the bees. She completely missed the small smirk that graced the face of Suzumebachi as she removed the kunai.

Hinata finally realized her mistakes of using her kunai to cut up the bees heading her way. First was that there was a numerous amount of bees for her to target and secondly being that each time she cut up a few of the bees, they would turn into sticky nectar which was falling on her and slowly restricted her movements.

"No…" Hinata muttered as her movements were restricted by the sticky nectar.

"So you finally noticed… that the nectar has the same properties as the glue", said Suzumebachi with a haughty tone as she was now certain of her victory.

"Now to end this…" Suzumebachi said with a sly smirk on her face as her hand weaved through a set of another hand seal.

"**Hachi Senbon no Jutsu (Thousand Bee Stings Technique)**_**…**_" Suzumebachi called out as another colony of bees were released from her sleeves.

All those bees floated next to Suzumebachi with their stingers pointed out at Hinata and fired their poisonous stingers at the Hyuuga heiress.

Hinata watched with a small bit of dread as those stingers approached her and it was only the worried shouts of her friends that snap her out of her fear and act. She knew that she had just recently started learning that jutsu and chances of it succeeding were minimal, but she also knew that it was the only jutsu that was going to help her out of this predicament. Focusing her chakra through all the chakra points of her body, she used the **Jūkenpō Ichigekishin (Gentle Fist Art One Blow Body)**. Luckily for her the jutsu worked and broke the hold of the sticky nectar on her body and because of that she was able to avoid the stingers at the very last moment.

"Wha…? How…?" shouted Suzumebachi completely surprised seeing that her opponent was not only able the break free of the sticky nectar, but was also able to avoid the stingers.

"I already told you… that… I won't give up without a fight… and know this… that I will give my all to win…" declared Hinata as she was panting a little as the jutsu took a lot out of her.

"Big words", snarled Suzumebachi as she looked at the girl with distaste in her eyes. A lot was riding on her shoulders in this exam as this was a chance for her to improve her standing of her clan in Iwagakure and bring back the honor they had lost during their very disappointing lost against the Aburame. Though before she was sent with the team to attend the Chuunin Exams, she was briefed by the Sandaime Tsuchikage that this was her big chance to show that their clan still hold to its former glory and at the same time was also strictly warned that she should not be acting with the intention of revenge against any Konoha-nin for their clans losses against the Aburame clan, after all this was a way to show that Iwa-Konoha peace talks were going in a right direction. But she couldn't control her anger at her opponent as she easily moved around her attacks and the girl's bold declarations made her feel as if she was mocking her. She was going to show who was the superior here in the fight as a very big colony of bees left her sleeves as they circled around the girl ready to strike at her command… and it only came as a bonus as she was a teammate of a Aburame.

…_With Naruto…_

It had been the most interesting match he had seen so far and it was clear to him and all present that both the girls were skilled than an average genins. It was a match of complete opposites as the Hyuuga clan was famous for their close-range abilities while the Kamizuru clan was famous for their long range abilities. Though with the abilities of the Kamizuru clan, the match at first seemed one sided, but somehow the Hyuuga heiress was able to counter her opponent's bag of tricky jutsus.

He was a captivated by the Hyuuga heiress. It was not the skills of the Hyuuga heiress that captivated him, but it was her fierce determination. The Old Man had always mentioned to him that a person would only go far to achieve his dreams/goals if the person the mental strength and the will to stand to his belief and here in front of him was a girl who stood against an opponent which had clear advantage over her with fierce determination.

But at this moment the Hyuuga heiress seemed to be in a pitch as she was being surrounded by hordes of bees, there seemed no escape. It was the calm and determined expression on her face that clued him that she still had an ace in her sleeves and it seemed he wasn't going to be proven wrong. He watched as the Hyuuga heiress closed her eyes as she formed a half Ram seal with her right hand and stood her ground. He could sense her chakra stirring in action and knew she was going to do something he certainly wouldn't want to miss.

With that in mind he focused his on the Shizen Enerugī (Natural Energy) surrounding him with his eyes closed… it was an ability of his as his body was able to draw in Natural Energy… very similar to the ones who were trained in the art of Senjutsu… but unlike them his body was able to draw in Natural Energy on his instincts and emotions… and it was because of that he had a very peculiar abnormality while growing up. He had trained to control this ability under the guidance of the Old Man seeing he was able to harness Natural Energy to empower his Kekkei Genkai jutsus. Though he was nowhere close to the power of the one trained in the art of Senjutsu and attained what the Old Man termed to be Sennin Mōdo (Sage Mode)… he had gained some perks while learning to control his abilities… one of that was his sensory ability as he was able to feel the natural energy around him.

Finally drawing in enough energy to force his sensory ability to its farthest limit where he could not only feel, but see chakra too did he open his eyes. He was certain that if anyone were to look at him they would find his eyes radiating a golden-yellow glow.

He knew pulling such a stunt wasn't the wisest of his decision as he could feel a few eyes turn to him when they saw the change in his eye, but he couldn't stop himself. His gut feeling told him that he was going to witness something new here and he was never to refuse the words of his guts.

_...With Hinata…_

She knew that it was now or never. All her hard work, days and moths of training her chakra control to finding something that would suit her. Only a few people knew about the jutsu she had developed and they were all here. This was her time to make them proud of her and show that she was not a damsel in distress.

'I know I haven't used that move in actual combat yet, but now I have to use it here' she thought as she closed her eyes to mold her chakra to perform her jutsu.

Her eyes opened with her **Byakugan** flaring with intense determination.

"**Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō (Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)!**" she called out as her hands moved fast enough to become blur for most of the people in the arena as she chakra created sharp chakra blades.

Counting her natural flexibility she was able to strike most of the bees with sharp chakra needle cutting them in half while those that had approached her were destroyed by the almost invisible dome of chakra formed around her by the sharp chakra blades of her jutsu.

She could easily see the shock of most of the people around, but at this moment she was completely focused on her opponent who to had been shocked at the display and just stood there gaping at how easily her bees were being dispatched.

As soon as she destroyed the threat of the bees surrounding her, she charged at her opponent not giving her the time to regain herself and hit her with **Shōtei (Palm Bottom)**. The strike took instantaneous effect of rendering her opponent unconscious as she had unknowingly put more force behind the strike.

Being declared the winner, she couldn't help as her shy self started to emerge as she was being congratulated by most of her friends for her victory. Amidst those shouts of congratulations, her eyes shifted to the four people whose opinion mattered to her the most. Standing next to the two Hokages the sight of the pride-filled smile on the faces of Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina and Senju Tsunade made her feel that this was her greatest achievement and that feeling further intensified as she saw the same smile adorning Kurenai-sensei's face and the large grin of Ran's face.

…_With the spectators…_

"That was a very youthful jutsu", commented Gai to his fellow jounins as he truly was awed by the Hyuuga heiresses changing the **Jūken** to fit her body structure. He always believed that every individual had his own style of fighting and shouldn't be restricting himself to something because it was tradition.

"Indeed", replied Asuma as he too was awed by the jutsu.

Meanwhile the jaws of Sakura, Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru were hanging a bit loose as they watched the performance and couldn't help but be awed by the performance of the Hyuuga heiress, especially Sakura who had lost so easily.

"Yup… you showed them Hinata…" cheered Kiba for his teammate.

"A powerful yet graceful display", commented Shino.

Both her teammates were also surprised seeing that they didn't know much of the secret jutsu Hinata had developed during her training with Ran and her family.

Meanwhile Neji was seething with anger on the inside as he watched Hinata perform the **Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō**. He just couldn't digest the fact that the loser of the clan was able to learn something akin to **Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven)**.

"That was an impressive jutsu", commented Temari. This was another girl she would certainly like to fight with.

…_Meanwhile with the proctors, Hokages and other…_

"Now that was something completely new and definitely powerful", commented Jiraiya.

"Hinata-chan was always conscious about her skills and always felt inferior to others, so she asked our help to help her train. During her harsh training, she found her own style, her own jutsu. The **Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō** is the result of the training. Combining her natural flexibility with precise chakra control, she has a complete range of attack. An absolute defense. It is different from the **Hakkeshō Kaiten**. This jutsu only belongs to Hinata. She honed it by training with water", replied Kushina with a smile full of pride for the young blue haired girl.

"Impressive!" said Jiraiya.

"That aside… did you see…" asked Tsunade as her eyes turned towards the masked red head whose eyes mow seemed to have lost the glow.

"Yes… I wonder what that was… was it a new form of a **Dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai**…" commented the Sandaime.

"I wonder too… but I don't think that was a **Dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai**… I felt something when his eyes were radiating the glow… something I can't pinpoint at the moment…" replied Jiraiya.

"Me too… like I had felt something like that before", added Minato.

"And neither can you two remember what that feeling exactly was?" asked Tsunade.

"No", answered Jiraiya and the Yondaime agreed with him… they knew they were right though something was odd about those glowing eyes.

Meanwhile Kushina too felt something similar with those eyes… something she hadn't felt or seen in years… then it clicked her…

"I-It's the same feeling… but it seems more controlled…" the voice of Kushina spoke up in a very low tone.

"What are you talking about Kushina?" asked Minato.

Kushina finally raised her voice a little higher enough for those four to hear as tears stated forming in her eyes, "the feeling… it is similar to Naruto-chan… when he would be too emotional… when his body would go berserk… and we all had seen on occasions Naruto-chan's eyes glow in that state."

The eyes of the others widened… the glow of the eyes of the ronin Naruto was similar to that of baby Naruto when his ability went berserk… the only difference was the color of the glow…

…_With Naruto…_

The next match that had been decided by the electronic board pitted Gaara against Dosu Kinuta. This match had ended in a blink of an eye as it seemed Gaara had no desire to play with Dosu seeing that the moment Hayate called the match to begin, Dosu was caught by the sand from the sand gourd on Gaara's back and engulfed the Oto-nin's body. A large intake of breath was heard at the speed which Gaara had captured his opponent and by the eyes of three of the Konoha-genins, it was clear they knew what was coming next. Luckily for all present, they were spared from the sight of Gaara crushing his opponent using the **Sabaku Sōsō (Sand Burial)** as he only used his sand to crush the Oto-nin enough to knock him unconscious and with heavy injuries which would certainly destroy his carrier. But the highlighting feature of the match which he had noticed and it was evident that everyone had noticed too, that being throughout the match the emotionless eyes of Gaara were focused on him instead of his opponent.

If the match of Gaara was swift and destructive, the next match could be considered to be swift and graceful. The match pitted Hyuuga Neji against Akimichi Chouji. The chubby genin had no desire to fight the Hyuuga whose eyes seemed to be boring holes in him. It was only after the persuasion of the chubby genin's jounin sensei and also the promise of giving him a full course barbeque dinner for free, did he decide to fight. Unluckily for the chubby genin, before he could even use his clan's trademark jutsu, the Hyuuga acted swiftly and gracefully attacking with palm strikes knocking the chubby genin out.

The next match pitted Inuzuka Kiba of Konohagakure against Akatsuchi of Iwagakure. It started good with the Inuzuka trying to outsmart his opponent by making use of his heightened smell senses and usage of smoke bombs. But the plan was futile as none of the strikes of the Inuzuka made a strong impact on Akatsuchi who was showing a great deal of resilience and sturdy body. At some point in the match, the Inuzuka lost to his bestial instincts and the match became a competition of strength. Unfortunately for the Inuzuka, his strongest jutsu **Jūjin Taijutsu Ōgi: Gatsūga (Beast Human Body Technique Secret Art: Fang Passing Fang)**was unable to penetrate the golem of Akatsuchi and neither could the Inuzuka stand the punch from the golem.

Ten matched were over and ten winners were already declared. Only four genins were left. Namikaze-Uzumaki Ran, Yamanaka Ino, Rock Lee and him. If one were to ask him the one of the three he would like to be pitted against, he answer would be that he would love to have the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage as his opponent. From what he had come to know from his ink creations was that the girl had gone up against Orochimaru and was able to surprise the Snake-Sannin with one of her combo hurting the man in the process, that itself made her a powerful opponent. Aside from Ran, he would love to be pitted against the boy who was continuously chanting about 'Youth' with an older version of himself. For some reason he felt the boy to be a dark horse of the tournament.

Finally the electronic board declared the opponents of the second last match of the preliminaries as it pitted two blondes against each other. Namikaze-Uzumaki Ran vs. Yamanaka Ino. That left him to face off the boy with those bushy brows to fight against. As his eyes met with the boys, he was surprised by the determination in the boy's eyes, an intensity which could be seen in those who wanted to prove themselves to everyone. Now that got him eager as he could feel that the boy had skills to back his determination.

…_With Ran and Ino…_

"I don't wish to fight you Ran", said Ino as she had no desire to fight her friend and also in back of her mind she already knew that this was not going to be her win.

"Neither do I want to Ino… but we have to, to see who proceeds further in the competition", replied Ran.

"True enough…" replied Ino.

"Just so you know Ino… I already know of the **Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Technique)**…" said Ran with a serious look on her face as she stared down at her childhood best friend.

Ino cursed mentally as she tried to figure a way to get her fellow blonde and childhood-best-friend to fall for her only useful jutsu.

"Begin!" Hayate called out as he looked at both the blondes taking a fighting stance.

As the match was called on, both the blondes charged at each other and engaged each other in a taijutsu bout. As the duo exchanged punches and kicks it became evident to all present that the daughter of the Yondaime was superior to her fellow blonde and seemed at more ease using both her hands and legs in the taijutsu bout while the taijutsu style of her fellow blonde only revolved around punches. Also the daughter of the Yondaime seemed to house more power and speed than her fellow blonde, but that didn't mean the Yamanaka heiress was any less as she too managed to get a few good hits on her fellow blonde.

Finally the two blondes separated from each other after the daughter of the Yondaime was able to nail her fellow blonde with a nasty right hook to her face which sent her skidding a few feet back. Both the girls sported some injuries, but the amount on the Yamanaka heiress was far more than that of her fellow blonde and the last punch had forced some blood to be drawn from her mouth.

Ino was heavily cursing herself for the lack of her training. In front of her was a girl with whom she had joined the academy and had also started training with her family around the same time when her fellow blonde started hers with her family. Yet here she was clearly superior to her. She knew the reason behind the vast difference… her fawning over Sasuke. It wasn't the boy's fault for her current situation; rather it was her own as she joined her classmates at the academy wasting her time to impress Sasuke and gave little time to training and more time to beautifying herself to look good for Sasuke. Also her guilt further increased remembering Ran trying to talk her out of her fan-girl-mode and had been unsuccessful which later caused a drift between them. But here was the moment for her to prove herself to Ran that she no longer was the fan girl that she once was. But at the same time the problem remained that she only had one offensive jutsu outside the academy ones and was certain that Ran new the weakness of the jutsu. Steeling her resolve she prepared to use the only jutsu in her arsenal worth this match.

"You can't be serious Ino… I know the quirks of that jutsu and know of its biggest weakness Ino… You know that using that jutsu you will practically be forfeiting the match…" commented Ran as she watched Ino perform the specific hand seal for her clan jutsu.

"I know you hated it when I turned into a stupid fan girl and from there our friendship went downhill… but I am no longer the fan girl you came to know through the academy… I am Yamanaka Ino… the one who wishes to be the best interrogation specialist like her father…" declared Ino stunning the entire crowd.

"So you say you changed from the girl who only worries about growing her hair and looking pretty…" said Ran with an impassive look on her face, though inwardly she was truly happy. This was the Yamanaka Ino she was ones friends with.

"What you don't believe me! Is it my hair the reason for not believing me? WELL HERE…" shouted Ino as she removed her kunai from her pouch and cutting her long hair and throwing it in the ground between herself and Ran.

…_With the spectators…_

"She is lost it… not only she is willing to use the **Shintenshin**, but she also cut her hair in a fit of rage… that troublesome girl has stopped using her head…" said Shikamaru as signs of frustrations were visible on her face.

"I understand that she wants to go back being friends with Ran… but there are better ways to do that instead of snapping out in a match to prove your point…" muttered Asuma.

"Ino!" muttered Sakura as she heard the words of long time rival.

…_With Ino and Ran…_

"Well if you are going to be this serious, then perhaps (forming the hand seal for her favorite jutsu)… **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**…" said Ran as two clones of her formed next to her.

This was something that Ino was certainly not expecting, but seeing that she had the real Ran trapped without her knowledge she decided to quickly activate her jutsu.

"**Shintenshin no Jutsu!**" Ino called out as she activated her jutsu. She watched as all three Rans quickly tried to move from their place before her juts could take effect, but only the doppelgangers succeeded in their attempt.

…_With the spectators…_

"What is going on?" asked Shikamaru as he watched all the three copies of Ran suddenly stopped in their tracks and had also not missed that one of the three Ran had not moved from her place.

"It seems like that snapping was an act…" replied Asuma as a sigh released his lips.

"An act!" Sakura asked out loud.

"Yes an act… the act to cut her hair as she used them to trap Ran…" Kakashi said.

"That means…." Sakura said letting the words hanging as she didn't believe it was possible.

"It is a possibility…" said Kakashi.

…_With Ran and Ino…_

Ino couldn't help but feel really giddy with zest as her silly little idea with her hair had worked and now she had her mind transferred to Ran's body superseding Ran's mind. She knew that she had less time before Ran's clones again set in action as she was unsure of how they would react with her being in the original's body and she didn't know of the way to dispel them. Quickly raising her-Ran's hand with a smirk of victory over her-Ran's face she spoke out loud.

"I Uzumaki-Namikaze Ran would like to for…"

Unfortunately for Ino she couldn't finish her sentence as she was violently thrown out of Ran's body back to her own as the body of Ran burst into smoke.

"Wha…! But how?" Ino couldn't help but ask as she felt one of the two remaining Ran standing behind her with a kunai pressed to her neck.

"You didn't think I wouldn't see through your act Ino… We were ones best of friends and one of the things I learned about you that time was that you simply adorn your hair… so it was clear that you cutting your hair was a ploy, especially after you took precaution to see that the hair fell in between the two of us… so at the very last minute I substituted myself with a clone of me… Now forfeit!" said Ran as she pressed the Kunai on Ino's neck.

"I forfeit…" Ino said with slumped shoulders. Her best jutsu and best plan had been foiled and she knew that fighting any longer was not going to work against Ran and the girl would also not fall for her jutsu even if she tried another time.

"The winner is Uzumaki-Namikaze Ran!" declared Hayate which followed by shouts of congratulations from the balcony where Konoha-nins were.

…_With the proctors and the Hokages…_

"Sigh… that was some intelligent thinking by both of them…" Jiraiya said as he was really grateful of knowing that Ran had advanced to do a smokeless substitution.

"It certainly was", commented Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"It was a good match…both Ran and Ino did good job…" said Minato.

"Yes it was… but it is good to see the two back to being friends like when they were small", commented Kushina with a big smile on her face as she watched the two girls' hug each other putting their differences aside.

"Yep that was the best highlight of the match", replied Minato with an affectionate smile on his face as he looked at his daughter.

"All that aside… it is time for the last match to start", said Sarutobi as he watched the remaining two contestants walk down in the arena.

This was one of the most awaited matches, especially to the five of them. It seemed like they weren't the only ones who waited for the match. It was to be predicted as the red head to fight in the match had already made a name himself throughout the Elemental Nations by being one of the youngest to be admitted in the Bingo Book. There was a lot of curiosity for many to know about his skills. The basic information stated was that the boy was skilled in Raiton ninjutsu and Fūinjutsu… also there was a rumor of him being skilled in Suiton, Fūton and Iryō (Medical) ninjutsus. Then there was the matter of the glowing eyes that many had seen him use during the match of Hinata and Suzumebachi which to most was a completely unknown factor.

But the importance of this match to the five transcend the boundary of learning the skills of the red head, rather it was their desire to learn more about the boy, the boy who shared so many qualities with Minato and Kushina and a very close semblance to their dead son. To Kushina he was her little boy and she had not a single doubt about it.

"Finally we will get to see what the brat is capable of…" said Jiraiya as he looked towards Naruto.

"Still sore about the beatings you received because of your own stupidity", commented Tsunade.

"I know whatever I say you aren't going to believe me even after I swear that I didn't make the brat accompany me…" said Jiraiya.

"I still don't understand why you are still angry about getting beaten even if he didn't accompany you?" asked Minato.

"Minato you don't mean to say you believe the pervert…" said Kushina as she glared at her husband.

"I don't… am just asking", replied Minato as he flinched seeing the glare of his wife.

"He escaped righteous woman fury…" Jiraiya finally answered the questioned that had plaguing the mind of the four for the past week and caused them to burst in laughter. But being the main judges, they schooled their features before anyone could catch the sight of them, but it was going to be a tormenting next few days for Jiraiya.

…_With Lee and Naruto…_

"To be able to face someone of your reputation this early… I couldn't be happier", said Lee as he stared down his red head opponent who seemed completely relaxed.

"It certainly will be fun to against the student of the renowned taijutsu specialist Maito Gai… I wish this to be certainly to be a good match -ttebayo", said Naruto with a grin behind his mask.

"YOSH! NOT ONLY ARE YOU SKILLFUL, BUT YOUTHFUL TOO!" shouted Lee to the heavens above.

"What beast did I unleash…?" Naruto muttered to himself as he watched bush brows shouting about youth and the worse being the way his teeth and eyes sparkled.

…_With the spectators…_

'So it finally comes to this…' thought Kakashi as he eyed the red head masked genin. Being close to the Hokage's family he had learned of their doubt that the ronin participating in the exams could possibly be their long dead son. That was just completely insane to him, but the fierceness behind Kushina-sama's word told him that she had not a single inch of doubt in her mind and heart.

'Is Lee-san going to be alright?' Sakura wondered as she looked at Lee face of the red head masked boy. The boy had seemed good to her as he was one of the few that had come to the rescue of her team and even helped Ran with whatever seal Orochimaru had placed in her. But there was the part of him being in the Bingo Books of two countries and from what she learnt was that you had to be either really strong or had done something offending to get in them.

"So we finally get to see what he is capable of…" commented Kurenai as she too eyed the red head boy gaining the attention of all genins around her. She had heard of the boy from Anko and a few others and was truly intrigued to learn what the Bingo Book ronin was capable of.

"Yes it will certainly be a match to watch", commented Asuma.

"Indeed, his skills are a complete mystery", replied Kakashi.

"I don't know much about his skills, but I know that he certainly is very skilled in Fūinjutsu", Ran piped in catching the attention of all jounins and genins.

Fūinjutsu was an obscure art and there were only few practitioners of the art seeing it was very complex. In this very room there were three ninjas who are well renowned for their mastery over Fūinjutsu and the one to speak was the daughter of two of them.

Seeing the questioning look of the jounins she decided to elaborate further, "After fighting Orochimaru in the Forest of Death… the man placed a seal over me… and I for one know that the seal he placed was very efficient and I would need to get to tou-san, kaa-chan, Tsunade-baa-chan, Ero-jii-san or Sandaime-O-jii-san to get it removed… but he removed it without any hitch. He was even willing to seal away the curse mark on Sasuke's neck and only didn't because it would render him unconscious which wasn't a wise choice seeing we were in the Forest of Death in middle of the Chuunin Exams."

This was big news to all jounins. To hear that the boy was capable of unsealing something which Ran believed to only be capable of people who were well versed in the art of Fūinjutsu and also his willingness to seal away the curse mark which was very hard to contain, that certainly spoke of the boy's ability in Fūinjutsu.

"What seal did Orochimaru place on you?" asked Kakashi.

"**Gogyō Fūin**…" was the short reply of Ran which caused the eyes of the jounins to widen seeing the logic behind her words.

'This **Gogyō Fūin** must be some seal for the jounins to be surprised and to think he had unsealed it so nonchalantly… and the way he admired the seal work of Yondaime-sama… Troublesome… he is someone to not mess with…' thought Shikamaru.

"That aside… did you see the glow in his eyes?"Kakashi whispered to his fellow jounins.

"Yes… that was something completely new", replied Asuma.

Meanwhile with the Iwa-nins, the trio of two genins and the jounin had their eyes focused on the match with what the genins had heard during the first part of the exams and orders from the Tsuchikage to the jounin.

"Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi keep yours peeled for every single detail on this match", ordered the jounin to his genins.

"Why?" asked Kurotsuchi, though she already had a good idea.

"Orders from Tsuchikage-sama!" replied the jounin.

On the other side all the eyes of the Suna-nins silently waited for the match to start. The red head masked boy was listed in the Bingo Book of Suna after his fight with Gaara, where the masked boy had not only gone toe-on-toe with his fellow red head in the desert, but was also able to seriously wound Gaara before making his escape. But that wasn't the reason of them being focused on the match; it was because the boy had become somewhat a significant part of their lives during his four months stay in Suna, even if they would deny it.

'That boy… he won't stand a chance against Naruto… he definitely had speed, but his kicked lacked power… and I don't think he will be able to surpass Naruto in speed if he decides to go all out' thought Temari.

"Finally it is time for your boyfriend's match…" said Kankurou with a sly smile on his face, but stopped in mid sentence as he felt a shiver run down his spine. He turned around to find Temari glaring at him with her patent 'I-am-the-eldest-and-I-have-the-right-to-kick-your-ass' glare.

"I m-mean th-that guy with bowl cut won't stand a chance against him", Kankurou quickly changed the topic.

"That he won't", replied Temari with a small smile on her face as she turned towards the fight which seemed to start in few seconds.

'Saved… but she didn't deny my words' thought Kankurou as a sly smile graced his lips.

Not caring about the bickering of his siblings, Gaara's eyes were completely focused on the match as the inner demon of him was shouting to take action and end the runt from the face of the earth which he decided to ignore for the time being.

The KONOHA NO KEDAKAKI AOI MŌJŪ (KONOHA'S SUBLIME GREEN BEAST OF PREY) who had stayed silent throughout the discussion of his fellow jounins as he had his eyes fixed on his student and his opponent finally spoke up, or rather shouted destroying the ear drums of those around him.

"YOSH! LEE! LET THE POWER OF YOUR EXPLODE!"

…_With Naruto and Lee…_

Hearing those words of his sensei's words Lee couldn't help but shout back in enthusiasm, "INDEED, GAI-SENSEI! I WILL SHOW EVERYONE THE POWER OF MY YOUTH!"

'Seriously, what kind of beasts does Konoha have in its sanctuary… if this are to be go by… then I shudder to meet the others…' thought Naruto as he was really feeling a bit anxious about the student-teacher duo with all their shouts of youth.

Luckily for Naruto that eccentric attitude of his opponent didn't last for long and his face turned serious and he took his taijutsu stance (Lee's **Gōken** stance). Seeing this he breathed out a sigh of relief and stood in relaxed stance with his hands to his side. He never had formal training in one form of taijutsu styles and loved his random attack style.

Lee raised his eyebrows seeing the relaxed stance of his opponent and for a split second felt a bit insulted, but the teaching of Gai rang in his mind. _Never underestimate any opponent_. And his opponent was certainly not to be underestimated if what he had seen and heard of him was any indication.

Seeing that both the opponent seemed ready Hayate called out, "NOW, THE 12TH, THE FINAL MATCH, PLEASE BEGIN!"

The moment the match was called on, Lee shot towards his opponent with impressive speed as he covered the distance between the two in matter of seconds.

"**Konoha Senpū (Konoha Whirlwind)!**" Lee shouted just a couple of feet away from the red head as he attacked his opponent with successive high and low kicks.

To the surprise of Lee and the spectators, each and every successive low kicks and high kicks were blocked by the red head. Even while blocking the barrage of the successive kicks, the red head was only moved a couple of inches from his spot and above all he was able to find an opening and ram a powerful elbow into Lee's guts making him stumble back which was followed by a nasty haymaker to his jaws.

Lee was astounded by his opponent. Not only was his able to see through the feint attack of **Konoha Senpū**, but was also able to block the continuous barrage of kicks. He had even found opening into his attack and planted an elbow and a haymaker which were really powerful if the pain her was feeling on the point where they struck. But one thing had been ascertained in the span of the few seconds, the red head was a very powerful opponent. With that thought in mind, he charged his opponent with a barrage of powerful punches and kicks.

…_With the spectators…_

It was painfully obvious to all that whatever Lee tried, Naruto had him outmatched. The red head masked ronin was able to block, parry any punch or kick the bushy-brow Konoha-genin threw at him, at any angle. None of the taijutsu endeavors of Lee bored any effect as nothing had yet connected with the ronin. Meanwhile the few strikes the ronin had unleashed had successfully found their target.

Ran couldn't believe what she was seeing, for the red head masked ronin to so easily brush of Lee's attack, the same Lee that had had literally humiliated Sasuke before the start of the first exam, it was surreal.

"Impossible… None of Lee-san's fast attacks are having any effect… his opponent is faster than Lee-san… then why is Lee-san still using only taijutsu? Shouldn't he try to fight from a distance with ninjutsu", Sakura spoke up.

"It's not that Lee doesn't use ninjutsu… he can't use them", Gai spoke up shocking the close by genins.

…_With Naruto…_

Through the minute of exchange of fists between him and his opponent, he learned one thing and that was his opponent was a restless attacker. It complimented the taijutsu style he used which seemed to be centered on fast and hard strikes. The only downfall to this style he could see was that the style would be useless against someone who was faster than the user and had quick body reactions. Hence to Lee he was the worst opponent. He was not only faster than Lee, but through the harsh training with the Old Man his reaction time was very sharp.

"**Konoha Daisenpū (Konoha Great Whirlwind)!**" he heard Lee shout and charge at him to deliver a barrage of kicks.

It was clear that the taijutsu maneuver to him that Bushy-Brows was going to pull was going to be a stronger and ferocious version of his previous move, **Konoha Senpū**. The name suggested it. He had blocked the previous one which had left his hands sore for a few seconds and as such had no desire to face this technique.

Forming the Tori (Bird) hand seal, he molded his chakra to mold the wind around him to form an _almost_ invisible whirlwind barrier and a satisfied smirk graced his lips as he watched the shocked face of Lee who was stopped in mid strike and then was flung away as he was hit by the force of the invisible gale. It was a jutsu he had developed during his days in Suna watching Gaara's sand defense and Temari's wind jutsus.

Deciding not to give his opponent any time to recover from his sudden offense… his hands sped through a few hand seals as he took a deep breath… finished with the hand seals he exhaled small blasts of wind chakra towards Bushy Brows and over an expansive range.

**Fūton: Shinkūgyoku (Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere)** was a jutsu that was difficult to avoid as the small blasts of wind chakra were exhaled in such a manner that they were dispersed over an expansive range… and if one was able to avoid the small blasts of wind, he/she would certainly take some damage. So was the case with Lee as even though he was able to avoid the small blasts of wind jutsu, he had a lot of cuts and pierced skin as evidence that he didn't escape unscathed.

…_With the spectators…_

"This doesn't look good for Lee-san", Sakura commented.

"Yes… it doesn't look good… his opponent Naruto is superior to him in both speed and power and has some powerful ninjutsu skills… and with Lee-san only capable of using taijutsu…" said Ran as she stopped at the end of her statement as just a few seconds ago they learned about Lee's incapability of using neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu.

"But what happened when Lee-san charged at Naruto with **Konoha Daisenpū**…?" asked a confused Ino.

Ino wasn't the only one with that question as almost all the genins had that question on the minds of all the genins.

"An invisible wind wall…" answered Kakashi as he had removed the hitai-te over his left **Sharingan** eye.

"That is some advanced skills with wind manipulation", commented Asuma as he was highly impressed by the red head.

"Do you think you can stand against him Kurotsuchi?" asked Akatsuchi.

"Indeed I can", replied Kurotsuchi in a haughty tone as she was proud of his skills.

"That will have to wait and watch. I don't think that is the extent of his abilities", spoke up the Iwa-jounin making Kurotsuchi to scowl even as she already was aware of it.

"Sheesh… he is playing around with that Konoha-genin. He should simply end this instead of playing around", said Kankurou.

"You don't get it Kankurou… he isn't playing… it is as if he is waiting for something", replied Temari.

"And how do you know that?" asked Kankurou.

"It is in his eyes", said Temari as her eyes were focused on the match or to be specific were focused on Naruto.

"Who am I to challenge you about him…? After all a girlfriend knows her boyfriend better than the others…" Kankurou said with the last statement he barely spoke above a whisper and was happy that Temari didn't seem to hear. He feared the retaliation of his elder sibling if he tried to speak of her relationship with Naruto. Speaking of siblings, his eyes turned towards the youngest of the three. He didn't know how but Gaara seemed completely as his eyes were simply locked on Naruto and only the increasing bloodlust that he felt indicated that Gaara was very eager to go down there and settle his score with the fellow red head. He shuddered thinking the result of their confrontation. The first time they had fought, the desert area was thoroughly damaged and now that both had grown in skills, he didn't even want to think of the damage the two could cause.

…_With Lee…_

Whatever he tried, nothing seemed to be working on his opponent. He had pushed himself to the fastest he could go and tried to hit from the blind spot of the ronin and yet it didn't work. He only had two options and both had some rules set behind by Gai-sensei which he didn't wish to break. His mind tried to process the possibility of ways he could attack the red head. His line of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by the shout from Gai-sensei.

"LEE! TAKE THEM OFF!"

He turned towards Gai-sensei to wonder was he joking, but to his immense surprise he seemed completely serious. But it couldn't be true… the rules…

"BUT…! BUT GAI-SENSEI! THAT'S ONLY FOR TIMES WHEN I HAVE TO PROTECT MANY PRECIOUS PEOPLE, ISN'T IT!" Lee replied.

"IT'S ALRIGHT! I'LL ALLOW IT!" said Gai with the good-guy-pose.

He couldn't believe it; Gai-sensei wanted him to remove them. With them removed he knew that his speed would increase by a huge margin and it was clear that he needed that kind of speed to go against his current opponent. His current speed was already found out to be useless as his opponent trashed him in the contest of speed.

The smile on his face could not be stretched any longer as it was now went from one ear to the another as he slid down the leg warmers to take them off. There they were strapped to his legs … weights… the things he used to go extreme with his taijutsu training. On the weights was carved the word 'KONJŌ'… it was truly a match that was going to test his guts and spirit.

"ALL RIGHT! NOW I CAN MOVE EASIER!" he shouted as he removed the weights from his legs.

…_With the spectators…_

"Weights!" was the collective questioning words of most of the genins present.

'What an old style training method… Gai…' thought Kakashi as he looked onto the mini-Gai removing the weights from his legs.

'Pft… Something like a little weight isn't going to help you against Naruto… A speed contest with him should never be taken as an option…' thought Temari.

But what happened next took everyone by surprise and shock as the place where the weight collided with the ground it formed two large craters. This was crazy.

'Isn't that a bit too much…' Kakashi wondered seeing the impact of the weights.

'That's some weight… but will it be enough' wondered Temari.

…_With the proctors and the Hokages…_

"Leave it to Gai to take things to the extreme", commented the Sandaime seeing the impact of the weights.

"Mini-Gai certainly will need that extra boost if he wants to go toe-on-toe with Naruto… the boy is been playing with Mini-Gai", said Jiraiya.

"Well… we'll get to see if now the speed of Mini-Gai surpasses that of Naruto or not", commented Tsunade.

"Yes it will be interesting to watch", replied Minato.

Meanwhile Kushina just silently watched as her eyes stayed focused on Naruto.

…_With Naruto…_

Naruto's eyebrow twitched a bit at seeing the impact of those weights… speak of going to extreme. But he had no room for complaint as he too had gone to training which would be called 'going-crazy-extremes' by mundane standards. The Old Man had worked him through the ground.

"LEE! GO!" he heard the older version of Bushy Brow say to Bushy Brow and with that Bushy Brow moved into action.

The result was what he had anticipated… Bushy Brows was holding himself down on speed. With the weights gone the speed of Bushy Brow had drastically increased where he was only a blur to most of the genins present, but he could easily track his movement.

He watched with a grin on his face as Bushy Brows moved behind him, in his blind spot with his fist cocked back. His grin widened as the fist moved to connect with his face from his blind spot. He waited till the last movement to catch on to the fist of Bushy Brows… though he was surprised by the force behind the punch. The shock was evident on Bushy Brow's face.

He took that moment to hit Bushy Brows with a round house kick sending him flying across the arena. The moment Bushy Brows skidded to a halt after receiving the round house kick… Naruto for the first time in the match took on the offensive as he charged at Bushy Brows.

He moved at the speed almost equivalent to that of Bushy Brows as he engaged the Konoha-genin in a clash of fist in which neither of them was willing to give anyone any inch in the clash.

…_With the spectators…_

"This is crazy!" Ran shouted watching the high speed taijutsu fight between the two genins in a bit of awe.

"Both of them are so fast!" Sakura commented sounding completely awed.

"Wow! Their attacks are so fast my eyes can barely keep up…" commented Ino with the genins agreeing with her.

"They are equal in speeds…" added Hinata.

"It indeed seems so… but the way Lee-san's opponent is enjoying himself…" added Shino.

'What Shino is thinking is indeed true. It is clear that even now Naruto is still on the front foot' thought Kakashi. He wasn't the only one with the similar train of thoughts as it was on the minds of all jounins.

'It is as I thought… it is still not enough' thought Temari with a smile on her face.

"What about now Kurotsuchi?" asked Akatsuchi.

"I can…" answered Kurotsuchi with a bit of uncertainty in her voice as she too could see that the red head masked-nin was enjoying himself.

…_With Naruto…._

He was enjoying this. This was real fun. Exchanging punches and kicks with a boy around his age who moved almost as fast as his _normal_ speed… the adrenalin rush was surreal… it was as if he was back fighting with Gaara.

If he wanted he could end the match with a snap of his finger. It was a matter of using one of those jutsus and he would be out of Bushy Brows grasp in term of speed. Hell! Only the jounins and the Hokages could match him at that speed. But he decided to not use _that_ jutsu. The reason was the look in the eyes of Bushy Brow.

It was clear to him that the weights were not the only trump card in Bushy Brow's arsenal. And it certainly wasn't just the trick he used on the Oto-nin according to his information of his ink creations. There certainly was something more.

Blocking Bushy Brows spiraling kick and planting his elbow followed by round house kick, he forced some distance between the two of them. He returned to his relaxed stance which he had taken before the start of the match while Lee stood back up from the kick and stood in his **Gōken** stance.

The look in Bushy Brows eyes brought a predatory grin on his face. It seemed like he was going to use his trump cards.

…_With Lee…_

Even with his weights removed he was unable to match his opponent. Though to all it may look like they were equal in speed and he was also able to plant some hits on him… but he understood better. His opponent was still superior than him both in speed and power.

At this moment only one option was left to him… that was to break the rules set forth by Gai-sensei on those Kinjutsus. He understood that directly using _that_ jutsu wasn't an option at this moment.

His only option for the time being was the **Renge****(Lotus)**.

His head turned towards the Gai-sensei's direction where he silently asked for the permission to use _that_ jutsu and by the look on the face of Gai-sensei, it seemed he too was thinking the same thing. He couldn't help the large smile that erupted on his face as he received the permission.

He failed to notice the predatory grin on his opponents face as he started unrolling his bandages.

Once the preparations were ready for him to execute the jutsu he charged at his opponent with renewed vigor.

But unlike the times he used the jutsu on Sasuke and Dosu, he didn't charge directly at his opponent as he had greater speed and better reaction time then the other two and there was a possibility he might dodge his attack. It was something he didn't want to happen since the **Renge** is a double-edged sword.

With that thought in mind he ran circles around his opponent who silently observed his movements. At a sudden movement in between him running circles around his opponent, he charged at the red head ronin and was able to successfully plant a vicious kick on his jaws kicking the red head upwards. Using the **Kage Buyō (Shadow of the Dancing Leaf)** he appeared directly behind his opponent who was ascending further upwards.

But what happened next completely took him by surprise…

He was about to wrap the ronin with the bandages to execute the jutsu **Omote Renge (Front Lotus)**… it was then it happened as he watched the red head move in air with such agility as if standing on ground and was now facing him and before he could react a chakra enhanced palm thrust met his stomach which sent him stumbling towards the ground and go onto crash with the statue of the hands.

That hurt much more than Neji's **Jūken**strikes.

He didn't have much time to recollect himself as he watched the red head that had landed on the ground speed through a couple of hand seals and finally ending the hand seal sequence by clapping his hands together while he bend a bit backwards with his cheek inflating as if gathering a huge amount of air. He watched with horror struck eyes as his opponent fired a concentrated, destructive blast of lightning from his mouth which proceeded towards him at a very fast pace.

It was only because he had opened the first gate **Kaimon (Gate of Opening)** to execute the **Omote Renge (Front Lotus)**was he able to dodge that a concentrated, destructive blast of lightning jutsu. And even then he wasn't fast enough as he was sent hurling towards the side-walls of the arena and crashed into it as he was still close to the jutsu to experience its power which sent a small amount of shock through his body.

"Oops!" he heard the words leave the mouth of his opponent in a sheepish and guilty tone and also the gasps of few people from his position.

Wondering what caused the reactions he turned to look towards the direction where that a concentrated, destructive blast of lightning jutsu had struck which caused his eyes to widen in awe and horror.

The statue was on the verge of collapsing and above all there was a big hole the size of the hurricane through the wall behind it giving a view of the Forest of Death with about two dozens of trees uprooted in its path.

"Sorry didn't mean to try and hit you with the **Raiton: Narukami no Hōkō (Lightning Release: Roar of the Thundering Deity)**… it was just the spur of the moment, -ttebayo…" he heard his opponent say and turned around to find the red head scratching the back of his head with a small sheepish smile and looking a bit embarrassed.

His opponent was completely out of his league…

And he couldn't help but smile as he got to face such a strong opponent.

…_With the proctors and the Hokages…_

"Oops! Sorry! He just now almost destroyed the building and damaged the forest and the only word that left his mouth was OOPS AND SORRY!" said Anko completely befuddled by what had just taken place and the red head's reaction.

"Well, he seems to be actually sorry about it", commented Ibiki.

"Had any of you ever heard of **Raiton: Narukami no Hōkō**? Sensei…?" asked Jiraiya to the four people standing next to him and the question was mostly directed towards his sensei, The Professor – Shinobi No Kami – The Sandaime Hokage – Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"No!" answered the Sandaime while the others simply shook their heads.

"Does it by any chance mean that it was Naruto-kun's own creation?" asked Kushina in a soft voice. She clearly though it to be a possibility. Though it seemed that he acted more like her, he seemed to have inherited Minato's brains.

"It is a possibility…" answered Minato with a small bit of awe in his voice.

"To think he is capable of creating or even using something that strong and destructive… he is easily at high chuunin or low jounin level…" commented Tsunade to which they couldn't help but agree.

…_With the spectators…_

No words were leaving the mouths of the Konoha-genins as they still were focused on the destruction caused by the red head's jutsu. Only one thought ran through the minds of most of them… they had no wish to fight the red head.

"It is over for Lee!" said Kakashi as he slid his hitai-te back down covering his left **Sharingan**eye. The boy's bout with using the **Omote Renge** had failed and it was clear to him that he was currently suffering from intense pain which would cause him unable to move along with the injuries from being hit by the backlash of being close to the red head's jutsu.

"What do you mean sensei?" asked Sakura.

"The **Renge** jutsu is a double edged sword…" Gai spoke up as he grind his teeth in frustration.

Kakashi continued where Gai had left onto, "It's a Kinjutsu… all the high speed movement causes a strain on the legs and body… right now he must be feeling so much pain, he can barely move… couple with the injuries and paralysis from the backlash of Naruto's jutsu…"

No one could respond to that, it was already clear that Lee was completely outmatched.

Meanwhile Gai couldn't help but feel sad for Lee. The boy had never left hope in himself even with his handicap and strived hard for being a respectable ninja. Here was his chance to prove himself as he was pitted against the ronin who had made a reputation for himself. During the fight he had surprised all present genins and jounins and had certainly earned respect from them for his skills. But all his skills paled in front of his opponents who always stayed two steps ahead of him. He wondered how this would match was going to result on his life.

Suddenly eyes of Gai and everyone present as they watched Lee stand up and seemed ready to fight with a small smile on his face.

"What is going on? Lee-san is smiling…" said Sakura completely astonished at Lee's sudden change.

Only Gai seemed to understand what that meant and the next words he spoke shocked the one-eyed jounin next to him.

"The Lotus of the leaf blooms twice!"

…_With Naruto…_

He watched with a bit of surprise as Lee was back to his feet and seemed ready to fight. All his fatigue washed away and all the pain that he was enduring opening the **Kaimon** seemed to vanish away. It didn't make sense.

Suddenly it clicked to him… in front of him was one of the few shinobis capable of opening the **Hachimon (The Eight Inner Gates)** as it explained his sudden recovery by opening the **Kyūmon (Gate of Healing)**. Unfortunately (?) for him his ears caught onto the words of the Konoha-jounins about Lee's ability of opening the gates and it didn't look good for him when he heard the boy to be capable of opening five of the eight inner gates.

He understood the need to prove oneself to someone… to stretch one's boundaries… he too felt the same… to prove himself worthy to had studied under the Old Man… the Old Man that had saved his life when it was on the brink of Death God's grasp… the Old Man that had been his support to life as a child when he had no one to call his family or friends… the Old Man – Senju Hashirama.

It was evident from the face and eyes of Bushy Brows he was in the same boat… but at this moment he didn't care… because the damage he would receive from his attacks now would be very severe.

There was only one way for him to stand against Bushy Brows now and that was to use _that_ jutsu. The jutsu which he had developed after three years of harsh training as he trained to control the abnormality his body developed due to the ability to draw in Natural Energy which stimulated his high affinity to the Lightning element… something that had forced people to stay away from him and fear him as a child.

…_With the proctors and the Hokages…_

One thing was certain in the minds of all of them; the match had gone beyond the level of a fight between two genins. But now watching Lee ready to open the eight inner gates… it had just jumped to another level.

"What was Gai thinking teaching his students to open the **Hachimon**… those are suicide jutsus and not to be taught to the genins… the **Omote Renge **was acceptable… but to go further and teach **Ura Renge (Reverse Lotus)**…" growled Tsunade as she certainly didn't like the idea.

"It is up to the jounin-sensei to decide what to and not to teach their charges…" stated the Sandaime.

"But…" Tsunade tried to say but was interrupted by Minato.

"Yes, it is indeed the job of the jounin-sensei… but I will have a word with Gai later to make him understand when such jutsus are to be used", said Minato in a serious tone.

"But you have to hand it to the boy… to be able to open the gates… it takes talent", commented Gai which no one could disagree too.

Suddenly they along with everyone present heard the crackling of lightning making their and every ones' eyes turn towards the source of it. Their eyes widened when they watched the source to be Naruto as pale white lightning shot outwards from his entire body.

To most it would be a sight to behold as the lightning crackling outwards of Naruto slowly regress back towards him into his body and slowly the red head started to glow white, but for those five, especially two of the five there was more to it. While pale white lightning shot out of the body of the red head, in their minds an image of a small child barely older than a year with blonde hair, blue eyes and whisker-like marks on his cheeks overlapped the red head with lightning to crackling out of the infant's body.

It was a problem with which Uzumaki Naruto was born with as somehow when the young infant would be over anxious, sad, happy, hungry or crying his chakra would respond to his emotions. And being born with a high affinity to lightning element his chakra would unconsciously on such occasions turn into lightning shooting out of his body. The stronger the emotion he would display, the stronger the white lightning releasing out of his body would be.

Tears started streaming down the eyes of Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina. This was another proof that the boy in front of them was her own flesh and blood, her son.

…_With the spectators…_

It was surreal to watch… the transformation of both the competitors. Lee was emitting a green glow while his skin had turned red. Meanwhile Naruto's entire body was glowing white with what could be said an armor of white lightning surrounding his body.

'Naruto's jutsu… so similar to that of the Yondaime Raikage's **Raiton****no Yoroi (Lightning Release Armor)**… and at the same time so different… Such a surreal creation… but there has to be some very strong repercussion for such a jutsu…' thought Kakashi who had his **Sharingan** eye uncovered. In case of the Yondaime Raikage's jutsu, the man was surrounded by an armor of blue chakra and lightning while there seemed to be no change to his body. Then here was Naruto, whose entire body was glowing white with an armor of pale white lightning surrounding him. And the Sharingan was able to dissect the difference in the two jutsus with Naruto's turning his chakra from the inside of his body into lightning.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you have any clue what is the jutsu Naruto is using?" asked Ran with awe filled voice as she looked at the boy in question.

"Not exactly… but I have seen something similar…" answered Kakashi.

"What jutsu?" asked Ran.

"The Yondaime Raikage's **Raiton no Yoroi**", answered Kakashi.

Ran's eyes bugged out of her sockets. She had heard about the Yondaime Raikage from her father… a person whom her father considered to be the fastest shinobi with the use of the jutsu that Kakashi-sensei just mentioned.

"I don't know what is the jutsu that the bowl cut kid is using, but him using _that_ jutsu… the match is over", commented Kankurou.

The lightning jutsu that Naruto was using was the same that he had used to fight Gaara in _the desert_ after Gaara was ordered to capture the fellow red head by their father.

…_With Naruto…_

He was ready for Lee and just was waiting for him to charge. If he wanted he could easily charge and end the match before Lee could make his move, but it just didn't feel right. He was here for competition and Bushy Brows was certainly giving him one.

He watched with raised eyebrow as Lee opened the Fourth gate **Shōmon (Gate of Pain)** and by the blood running down the boy's nose and his severe pained expression, his body was unable to bear the force of releasing the gates… forget the after-effects. But before he could make a decision to either let Bushy Brows go further and let him open the fifth gate or stop him now before he damage himself more… Bushy Brows charged at him.

The speed at which Bushy Brow moved would be something beyond any of the present genins could hope to follow and would be hard pressed to see… and then there was the force behind his movement that shattered the ground beneath him… but Naruto was no ordinary genin. He wouldn't be hard pressed to see the boy move at his current speed, but certainly wouldn't have the ability to react that fast. This certainly gave Bushy Brows the edge.

Unfortunately for Bushy Brows he was now using **Shippuu Jinrai (Lightning Speed)**. A jutsu created from harnessing control over his unnatural ability of the pale white lightning born by his body able to draw in Natural Energy he was capable of using when he was on an emotional high and his chakra responded to his state born by his body able to draw in Natural Energy. Using this jutsu, he forced the entire chakra running through his chakra system to transform into that of lightning chakra and having the ability to use white lightning gave his body a white glow along with a shroud of white lightning surrounding his body. The jutsu electrically stimulated his nervous system to increase his reaction time and physical prowess to their absolute limit and granted him pure raw speed… and since the ability was born through his body's ability of drawing in Natural Energy, his perception and sensing abilities were further enhanced.

So he was able to block the upward kick from Bushy Brows aimed at his jaw by bringing his hand in an x-shape pattern to block the kick. Even if he was able to block the kick, he did feel the pain from the kick even after it had to first bypass the shroud of lightning around him. While he blocked Bushy Brows kick, he felt the boy flinch as he was zapped a bit by the lightning shroud surrounding his body.

For a split second he just stared at Bushy Brows, who just stared back at him with those white eyes which was one of the characteristics one achieves after opening the third gate. Even in those blank white orbs he could feel the determination lurking in them. A large grin spread across his face as he once again clashed fists with Bushy Brows.

Unlike last time where Bushy Brows tried to match him with kicks and punches, this time he tried his earnest to avoid his assault. It seemed that Bushy Brow learned that the lightning surrounding him had a stunning effect. But even then he didn't seem deterred from landing hits on him which really had some serious force behind them.

His right punch connected directly to the face of Bushy Brow, while Bushy Brow's right punch was also able to make connection with his face. He had put enough force behind his punch which sent Bushy brows skidding backwards about 10-12 feet. But for him, Bushy Brows to had put enough force behind his punch sending him skidding backwards the same distance as his opponent.

That punch from Bushy Brows seriously hurt… more than his previous few… it was as if he had put all the force behind it… and looking at Bushy Brows it seemed that he seriously did put all force behind the punch as he watched the muscles in his right hand snap from the force.

His eyes suddenly widened as he felt Bushy Brow's chakra once again building to take a new rise… that idiot was forcing another gate open even after all his injuries… it was completely suicidal act… and he decided to put a stop to it… stop Bushy Brow's foolishness. The boy had already proven he was a skilled ninja and didn't need to go any further by hurting himself to the extent that he might lose his ability to as a shinobi… or worse lose his life.

"THIS IS…" he heard Lee shout, but interrupted the boy from saying anything further as he transcended the distance between him and Bushy Brows in a flash of lightning leaving a trail of lightning behind his wake causing the eyes of Lee to widen and certainly that of the everyone present here too.

"Yes! This is the end!" said Naruto as he placed his right hand on Lee's stomach.

"**Byakuraishō (White Lightning Palm)!**" he said.

"AWWWW!" Lee shouted as the jutsu took its effect encompassing Bushy Brows in white lightning.

The jutsu worked not only damaging his opponent from the outside but also from the inside where it attacked his nervous system and having the reverse effect of **Shippuu Jinrai** had on him. It was a devastating jutsu. And it was a good thing for Lee that he could alter the power behind the jutsu and had kept it at level where it would not do any serious damage and only land Bushy Brows to the land of unconsciousness.

…_With the entire arena…_

There was a stunned silence ringing through the entire arena at just what had happened and only the Suna-nins didn't seem to be surprised by what they had seen. They didn't react when the proctor Hayate declared Naruto the winner and neither did they react when they watched Senju Tsunade along with Maito Gai rushed to the arena to check on the Konoha-nin.

All the while the ronin stood to the side with white lightning shroud as he stared on Tsunade use a diagnostic jutsu to check on the amount of injuries his opponent received.

The Lightning jutsu… so much similar to that of the Yondaime Raikage's **Raiton no Yoroi**… but movement similar to that of the Yondaime Hokage's **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)**… _maybe_ not as fast as those two… but still…

… A LIGHTNING FLASH!

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**The mystery of the Old Man is revealed… Senju Hashirama… You all may wonder how? Do wonder… I will reveal HOW as the story progresses.**

**For the 4 Kekkei Genkai Naruto possesses:**

**1 – Unnamed Kekkei Genkai: has the ability to let the body draw in Natural Energy**

**2 - ?**

**3 - ? **

**4 - ?**

**If you are capable of identifying the techniques used by Naruto… a brownie for you. **

**Skill level - **

**Naruto: **

**Taijutsu – High Chuunin**

**Ninjutsu – Low Jounin**

**Genjutsu – ? **

**Fūinjutsu – Mid to High Jounin**

**Kekkei genkai – ?**

**Hiden (Secret) – Mid Jounin **

**Medical Ninjutsu – ?**

**Weapons – ?**

**Intelligence – 159 IQ **

**Stamina – 9/10**

**Hand Seals – 7.5/10**

**Speed – 7/10 (without **_**Shippuu Jinrai**_**)**

**Strength – 6.5/10 (without **_**Shippuu Jinrai**_**)**

**Overall – Mid Jounin (without **_**Shippuu Jinrai**_**)**

**Ran:**

**Taijutsu – Low to Mid Chuunin**

**Ninjutsu – Low to Mid Chuunin**

**Genjutsu – Non Existing **

**Fūinjutsu – High Chuunin **

**Kekkei genkai – ?**

**Hiden (Secret) – High Genin **

**Medical Ninjutsu – ? **

**Weapons – High Genin**

**Intelligence – 125 IQ **

**Stamina – 9/10**

**Hand Seals – 6/10**

**Speed – 5.5/10 (without the chakra of the Kyūbi)**

**Strength – 6/10 (without the chakra of the Kyūbi)**

**Overall – Low to Mid Chuunin (without the chakra of the Kyūbi)**

**Hinata:**

**Taijutsu – Mid Chuunin**

**Ninjutsu – High Genin**

**Genjutsu – Low Chuunin **

**Fūinjutsu – High Genin**

**Kekkei genkai – Mid Chuunin**

**Hiden (Secret) – Mid Chuunin**

**Medical Ninjutsu – High Genin **

**Weapons – High Genin**

**Intelligence – 112 IQ **

**Stamina – 4.5/10**

**Hand Seals – 4/10**

**Speed – 5/10 **

**Strength – 4/10 **

**Overall – Low Chuunin**

**Kurotsuchi:**

**Taijutsu – Low Chuunin**

**Ninjutsu – Mid Chuunin**

**Genjutsu – High Genin**

**Fūinjutsu – Mid Genin**

**Kekkei genkai – Mid Chuunin**

**Hiden (Secret) – High Genin **

**Medical Ninjutsu – Low Genin**

**Weapons – Low Chuunin**

**Intelligence – 118 IQ **

**Stamina – 5/10**

**Hand Seals – 5/10**

**Speed – 4.5/10**

**Strength – 4/10**

**Overall – Low to Mid Chuunin**

**Akatsuchi:**

**Taijutsu – Low Chuunin**

**Ninjutsu – Mid Chuunin**

**Genjutsu – Low Genin**

**Fūinjutsu – Low Genin**

**Kekkei genkai – Non Existing**

**Hiden (Secret) – High Genin **

**Medical Ninjutsu – Low Genin**

**Weapons – High Genin**

**Intelligence – 101 IQ **

**Stamina – 6.5/10**

**Hand Seals – 4/10**

**Speed – 3/10**

**Strength – 6/10**

**Overall – Low Chuunin**

**The stats of the other genins are similar as per the Naruto manga/anime Chuunin Exam arc.**


	5. Truth?

**Truth!**

Finally he was free… out of the tower in the middle of the Forest of Death… the second round of the Chuunin Selection Exams finally ended with a preliminary round to boot… and now he had a month for himself before competing in the third round… An Entire Month… there was so much to do… to train… to plan… to sneak around… to seek/steal some vital knowledge… one of his primary goals… and if possible to find out what the _snake_ was up to.

The month up ahead was going to be truly hectic.

He wasn't much worried though even with the aspect of seeking some vital knowledge from Konoha for himself… after all he had done it before too… at Suna… and Kiri… it was one of the reasons of him being in the Bingo Books of those two villages… from Suna, their knowledge of Fūton ninjutsu… from Kiri, their knowledge on Suiton ninjutsu.

One would wonder why someone taught by the Legendary Senju Hashirama would be snooping around villages stealing their secrets… The answer was quite simple… the Old Man had hardly taught him any ninjutsu and had intently focused the four years of harsh training on elemental manipulation of the five elements even if he didn't have an affinity to the element… reason he had too much chakra so it didn't matter if he didn't have an affinity to an element, he could still use it without wastage of too much of his chakra… and could also use the Natural Energy to empower his jutsus if he trained hard at it… Yin-Yang manipulation… and above all the art of Fūinjutsu… he was an Uzumaki after all… and apparently the Old Man had learned the art from his wife… and of course he also learned Iryō (Medical) Ninjutsu… the Old Man was a legend, a fairy tale in the art of Medical Ninjutsu which surpassed the greatest medical-nin alive… his own granddaughter Senju Tsunade… and the basics of the other ninja arts.

As it was, all the jutsus that he had learned in that time period except for Fūinjutsu and Iryō Ninjutsu were all his own works after hearing stories of the Old Man of the great wars, fights and other ninjas… not that the Old Man didn't teach him any jutsu… he did… but only a few… and most of them were non-elementals… even after training him to harness all the five elements.

But above all his training with Senju Hashirama was focused on controlling his ability over drawing the Natural Energy into his body. It was from the Old Man he learned of his affinity to Nature… which over the years he trained to fine tune. From the Old Man he had learned the art of Senjutsu… though it was nowhere near the ability of people that learned the art of harnessing the Natural Energy and entering what they called to be the Sage Mode which heightened their abilities to a new high and gave them the characteristics of the animals they learned the art from.

In his case he could use the Natural Energy to enhance the power of his nin-tai-gen jutsu, his physical strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, durability and perception ability was increased to some extent. He knew over time as he continued to fine tune his ability with his ability to draw in Natural Energy, his abilities with it would grow too. But the greatest ability he achieved by being able to harness the Natural Energy was his sensing abilities… according to Senju Hashirama his sensory abilities were comparable to the best sensors in the world… and Hashirama wasn't the one to lie.

There were drawbacks too for something of that caliber… if he were to draw in too much Natural Energy then he would go berserk… pale white lightning would start shooting out of his body like a storm destroying everything in his path… also more the Natural Energy he would draw in the more tired he would be after he stopped the flow of the Natural Energy. For that reason he was working on a jutsu that would help contain the problem of lightning… of which **Shippuu Jinrai** was an incomplete form.

As his thoughts lingered on that ability… he remembered of using it during the Hinata-Suzumebachi match in the preliminary round… he had revealed to all present the unnatural ability with Natural Energyhe possessed… though he knew no one could get a gist of his ability, but his glowing eyes would give them an idea that he might possess a peculiar ability… or hopefully they would think of it as a genjutsu… hopefully the latter. Even though it seemed a bit stupid and hasty on his part… it was worth it… the jutsu the Hyuuga girl used was truly amazing… and with forcing his sensing abilities to the highest degree to gain the ability to see chakra… the arc-shaped chakra dome that surrounded her was a sight to behold.

If giving the most present at the preliminaries the glimpse of the his ability with Natural Energy wasn't enough… though he knew no one could get a gist of it… he had also gone and used **Shippuu Jinrai** during his match against Bushy Brows… the jutsu developed to help with his problem of going berserk… the jutsu termed a Kinjutsu by Senju Hashirama… a jutsu only he was capable of using as per the Old Man. He certainly hadn't expected that he would be using **Shippuu Jinrai** against anyone other than Gaara… that had certainly been a surprise… but he had no choice… he had to use it to counter the **Hachimon**. He could have used another means to counter Bushy Brow's jutsu… he needed room to execute his alternate ideas… which he didn't have… and hence he was forced to use **Shippuu Jinrai**.

The chaos that had followed after his match was one he would forever remember…

_FLASHBACK_

_Naruto watched silently as Senju Tsunade used a diagnostic jutsu on Bushy Brows to estimate the amount of damage that his body had suffered… and if looks could kill, Bushy Brow's jounin-sensei would be dead by now… it was only the concern on jounin held for Bushy Brow which had him stand his ground as he was certain that the man had every idea of running away from the fury of Senju Tsunade. _

_He didn't need Tsunade to confirm his doubts as she spoke with Gai about Bushy Brow's injuries… the boy would need a miracle to recover out of this situation without having one of his body part crippled for life… and that miracle could only be done by someone of Tsunade's caliber. _

_He could help too seeing that he was taught Iryō (Medical) Ninjutsu by Senju Hashirama… but decided for the time being to stay out of the way… as even though he was taught by the Old Man, he was nowhere at the level of Tsunade… that didn't mean that he would completely stay out of this…_

"_You! Stop using the Raiton jutsu and let me take a look at your injuries!"_

_The commanding voice of Tsunade broke him out of his thoughts as his eyes made contact with her annoyed light golden-amber eyes with her palms glowing green. It was then he realized that he had yet to deactivate his jutsu._

"_Hehehe… Sorry about that, -ttebayo!" he replied scratching the back of his head as he deactivated the jutsu._

_While the lightning shroud around him along with the white glow that had graced his body started to phase out of existence he continued speaking, "you don't need to check on me… I am completely fine."_

_But it seemed that his words were not appropriate for this situation as he felt her eyes started to twitch in further annoyance._

"_No you aren't!" she retaliated._

"_Yes I am!" he wasn't one to back down._

"_No you aren't! That Raiton jutsu you used is certain to cause some internal damage to your body", she retorted back._

"_I know perfectly well what my __**Shippuu Jinrai**__ jutsu is capable of. After all it is my own creation. So if I say 'I am fine'… I. AM. FINE!" he replied back._

"_And I am the medic here… and when I say you need to get yourself checked… YOU. GET. YOURSELF. CHECKED…"retaliated Tsunade with a commanding dark look in her eyes which had sent many enemies and males cowering in fear._

_But Naruto being Naruto didn't care for the danger in front of him as he shouted back, "HELL NO, OLD HAG!"_

_The shinobis that were still present around… who till now were enjoying the bickering between the red head and the blonde Sannin… a few of whom even knew that it wasn't right to question Tsunade when she is high-geared to look at someone's injuries and had decided to just have some fun…everyone felt a chilling cold aura suddenly engulf the entire room… and it was clear as to who was the cause of the dreadful feeling which even had the jounins and Kages cowering in fear… the cause of the dreadful feeling… one of the Sannin… Konoha No Namekuji Tsunade-Hime (Konoha's Slug Princess Tsunade)… Senju Tsunade._

"_Did you just call me an old hag?" asked Tsunade in a low and chilling tone._

_Meanwhile at the back Jiraiya continued chanting 'Say No' continuously in hopes that his inner pervert would somehow communicate his thoughts to the red head's inner pervert. The boy was Jiraiya's only hope of continuing his legacy of Icha-Icha, so he wished the boy to live a long life. That certainly wouldn't work if he would be dead by Tsunade's hands here and now._

"_Indeed I did! I am talking to you after all!" replied Naruto as it was something shouldn't even need to ask._

"_Why you…?" growled Tsunade as the temperature in the room dropped by a few more degrees._

'_This isn't good…' was the thought on each and everyone's minds as a few were worried for the red head while a few pitied him. _

_Meanwhile Minato, Jiraiya and Sarutobi decided to be on alert considering the love of Tsunade for causing collateral damage when someone/something irked her and by the look of Tsunade's face, Naruto had certainly succeeded in doing so._

_Completely disregarding the decreasing temperature around him and the tick marks on Tsunade's face Naruto continued speaking, "And it is so obvious I called you Old Hag… you are Senju Tsunade… one of the Sannin… a fifty year old hag who is faking her youth…"_

_The three men and a woman at the sidelines who were the only ones capable of fighting Tsunade were surprised by the amount of restrain she was showing as she had yet to punch Naruto to oblivion. Though the falling temperature in the room indicated that his end was close. _

"_I bet these aren't real too… just like your age…" Naruto said completely oblivious to the situation around him and the dark look on Tsunade's face as he went onto grope the gigantic mounds on her chest. A couple of gropes of those magnificent mammary glands from above the gray-kimono-style blouse… He froze._

"_Th-Th-These are r-real…" Naruto spoke a couple of seconds later in awe… but unfortunately (?) for him, his inner pervert decided to surface as his hand further groped those gigantic, magnificent, soft, godly bosoms._

_Each and every person present had their jaws hanging very, very, very, very low at the scene in front of them. No one had the time to react… not even the Yondaime… the one considered the fastest shinobi alive… when Tsunade flicked the forehead of Naruto with her index finger sending the red head flying through the walls of the tower… _

"_TSUNADE! WE AREN'T HERE TO INJURE THE COMPETITORS!" the Sandaime roared at his student being the first to regain from the shock._

"_THAT PERVERTED BRAT DESERVED IT!" Tsunade retaliated with the same vigor as the Sandaime._

_The words of the Sandaime brought everyone out of their stupor as they finally realized what had just transpired. The female in the population except one agreed with the blonde Sannin. Meanwhile the entire male population along with one female currently held the red head at the level of a deity… to grope the breasts of Tsunade, that required balls of steal… it was a dead sentence. _

"_And you whole heartedly disagreed with me a week ago at the onsen… and even after the many times I told you guys… but you wouldn't believe poor old me… the boy is a pervert", Jiraiya spoke in a smug tone with a hint of challenge as he looked at Kushina and Tsunade._

_But before either of the two could retaliate, the voice of Naruto spoke up as the red head walked back into the arena room through the hole in the wall._

"_I beg to differ with you Ero-Sennin… I am no pervert… I am just an admirer of the beautiful creations of mother nature… the female sex…"_

"_Ero-Sennin…" Jiraiya muttered as a tick mark developed on his forehead at his nickname._

_All eyes turned to the red head that walked in the room through the hole in the wall created by him being smashed through it with a big smile plastered on his face as if he wasn't even flicked a minute ago through the walls by Tsunade. The only thing which could tell that he was hit by Tsunade's super-flick was the small amount of blood running down his nose… but maybe it was for because of something entirely different reason._

'_He just admitted to being a pervert…' was the thought that raced through the minds of everyone present with most of the females glaring at him while for some males he now was the epitome of manliness… though they decided to keep their opinion to themselves._

_But before anybody could say a thing, Temari used the __**Shunshin no Jutsu**_ _to appear a few feet in front of Naruto with her Giant Folding Fan unfolded showing all the three stars._

"_A pervert like you appreciate a women's beauty… my ass…" Temari said in a chilling tone as he unleashed the most powerful __**Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Technique)**__ she could at the very moment on Naruto at point blank range. She watched with satisfaction as the point blank __**Kamaitachi **__caught him in a powerful tornado and was assaulted by the winds cutting ability. The pervert deserved it._

_But Temari's satisfaction didn't last long as the moment the tornado disappeared, instead of a bruised and battered body of Uzumaki Naruto falling on the ground… pieces of wood fell down indicating that the red head had used __**Kawarimi**__. Even before she could react to find the red head nuisance… her right ear was assaulted by hot breath and the sensuous voice of Uzumaki Naruto._

"_Indeed… Your ass is one of the most appreciated…" Naruto said in a sensuous tone as he leaned on her right shoulder from behind while his left hand gave a gentle squeeze to her left buttocks over her purple garment "… your bosoms too…" as his right hand gently groped her right bosom "… actually I appreciate you to the entity…" placing a gentle peck on her right cheek._

_The entire room stood stumped at what they were witnessing in front of them while a white haired pervert was furiously scribbling down some notes in a mini notepad for his future books while giggling perversely._

_Meanwhile Temari too was stumped in her place with her completely different reason as her body had turned crimson with the words of Naruto and his actions, especially the small peck on her right cheek. It took her a few seconds to regain her composure even though the crimson full body blush had yet to reside back, she charged at the red head with a war cry…_

"_DIE, YOU PERVERT! YOU FLIRT! YOU HENTAI!"_

_END FLASHBACK_

He knew one thing… that small memory was going to be forever attached to his memory as the fondest… he truly did appreciate Temari's beauty… it also helped that he liked her too.

But he shivered remembering the chaos that had initiated by his actions… with not only Temari, but Tsunade and couple of other women in the arena on his case trying to neuter him… and only by the help of the Yondaime and the Sandaime was he saved… and only because they had to continue the Exams.

He certainly wasn't much concerned with his opponent for the third round of the exams which was drawn by the lottery-number system… as it would feel like him boasting of his skills, but the truth remained that only Gaara was the only one he would have to go all out to fight against… though this time he was going to be ready for any surprises… like the **Hachimon** used by Bushy Brows.

But currently his mind was reeling in a fast pace trying to make a decision from two choices he had… find a ground away from prying eyes to summon the old white tiger… or go visit the Yondaime.

In normal circumstance the choice would be simple… to go visit the Yondaime to inform him the suspicion he had about Orochimaru… but the events after his match had made it difficult to choose… if by chance the old hag would be there, he would be skinned alive by her hands… and this time the Yondaime and the Sandaime would be unable to stop her.

It took him about ten minutes to consider his options with those two choices… ten minutes of pondering did he finally make a decision… with the decision made he made his way towards his destination.

…_Meanwhile at the Hokage's Office…_

The proctors of round one, two and the preliminaries had just left after giving their thoughts and assessments on the genins that had made it to round three along with a few that had caught their attention during the preliminaries. This only left the Yondaime, the Sandaime, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kushina in the room along with the couple of hidden ANBU. The Yondaime dismissed the two ANBU seeing that their discussion was going to be more personal and family related.

"So, what do you all think of the performance of Ran?" asked Minato.

"I would say Ran-chan is ready for a promotion to the rank of chuunin. She showed the mentality of a chuunin… though the match didn't force her to show her abilities to the best, we know she is chuunin-level in skills", answered the Sandaime which brought smiles on all the faces present.

"There was never a doubt in my mind she could do it, dattebane", cheered Kushina for her daughter, but suddenly her mind caught onto the fact that she ended her sentence with that blasted verbal tic again. Seriously what did the Gods had with her, she couldn't help but wonder. But for the first time in many years she didn't feel embarrassed using the verbal tic as it signified her bond with Naruto.

"Yeah… none of us had any doubts…" added Tsunade.

"What about the brat?" asked Jiraiya after a couple of seconds letting the enthusiasm reside a bit.

Much to the shock of the four, Tsunade stayed calm when Jiraiya asked the question. All knew who Jiraiya was asking about… so her reaction… especially after the incident at the end of the preliminaries… it was a surprise she was so calm at this moment instead of cursing a storm up or going on his hunt.

Deciding to take Tsunade's silence and calm as an indication to continue with their talks, the Yondaime spoke up destroying the awkward silence.

"There is not much to say about his match… he was ahead of Lee throughout the match in terms of both skills and mentality… and if I were to say his skills and mentality are certainly that of a jounin…" said Minato to which Kushina had a smile which showed how proud she was of Naruto.

"True… especially with _that_ jutsu he called **Shippuu Jinrai**… also there was__**Raiton: Narukami no Hōkō**… two creation of his own… and also the other Fūton jutsus he used", Jiraiya spoke with a hint of awe in his voice. No one could discount the words of the Gama-Sennin.

"And he also seemed to be holding back a lot of his skills", commented the Sandaime.

"That brings a question to answer… Why would someone of his skills want to participate in the Chuunin Selection Exams?" Minato pointed out. He didn't feel right to suspect Naruto of anything, but being the Kage it was his duty to see that there was no threat to his village.

"Minato!" Kushina spoke up in a tone of disbelief. She wanted to chastise him for even thinking what she knew he was thinking of her baby boy, but couldn't knowing full well of his responsibilities. So she decided to stay silent for the time being.

"True, but that can only be answered by Naruto", added the Sandaime.

"Leave that to me… I had already intended to go have a word with him before the start of the exams", said Jiraiya.

"NO! ANYONE, BUT YOU! I DON'T WANT NARUTO-KUN TO BE INFLUENCED BY YOUR PERVERTED ANTICS", shouted Kushina as the very thought of Jiraiya influencing her children in his perverse ways didn't bode well with you.

"I… influence him… have you already forgotten what he did to Tsunade and that Temari girl after his match…" Jiraiya spoke up.

"T-That was…" Kushina tried to be the devil's advocate here, but couldn't form words to form an argument.

"What he did to Tsunade would have been considered his curiosity… but after his small show with Temari… was there any doubt about him being a pervert. Hell, he even admitted it", Jiraiya added more to his previous statement completely shutting off Kushina.

"Whether Naruto is a pervert or not isn't the matter of discussion here… it is the whether he is really Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto?" spoke the Sandaime quickly defusing any argument that could have possibly been started over the boy's perverse nature.

"The ability he showed during his match and the feel of his presence during the match of Hinata-Suzumebachi… just like baby Naruto", added Jiraiya.

No one could deny that… the boy with each day was confirming their doubts that Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto didn't die that day… especially after the ability he had shown today…

"It is him", said Tsunade causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"W-What d-did you say Ts-Tsunade?" the questioned was stuttered out of the lips of Kushina… even in her heart and mind she believed him to be her Naruto… for she like the others knew that Tsunade wouldn't agree so easily without a proof… it was in her medic nature… so for her to confirm that…

"I said that the ronin Naruto is without a doubt Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto… your son", Tsunade said with a big smile on his face as she looked at the two parents.

Tears of joy started to pile up in the eyes of Kushina… Tsunade seemed to be confident about her claim…

"Tsunade, are you certain?" asked Minato… he was truly happy, but he had to confirm it.

"Yes… You all remember that I flicked the forehead of Naruto when he _groped_ my breast… I did more than flick his head… while I flicked his head I used my other hand to collect a sample of his blood from his wrists from an angle no one could notice…" said Tsunade as she brought out of the vial of blood from her pocket.

The implication was clear on all faces… they knew why Tsunade so confidently claimed the ronin Naruto to be Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto… the dead son of Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina and Namikaze Minato… the godson of Jiraiya and Senju Tsunade… the honorary grandson of Sarutobi Hiruzen. The tears were no longer restrained in the eyes of Kushina as she was held onto by Minato who was sporting a smile of true happiness on his face with a few drops freely falling down his face. Jiraiya was no further behind as his eyes too had tears of joys filled in them with a big smile on his face just like Tsunade, after all their godson was alive and it was finally confirmed. Sarutobi couldn't be much happier for the four of them.

"So that is why you had rushed to the hospital at the earnest… to do a blood test", said the Sandaime.

"You got that right sensei", replied Tsunade.

…_With Naruto…_

He finally made to his first destination… the Hokage Tower…

Even if he feared the idea of Tsunade being present there… she could kill him with a single punch… the forehead flick made her strength obvious to him… but Orochimaru was a far greater threat for him to fear a punch from Tsunade.

He quickly made his way towards the Hokage's office. Arriving at the office he found the door closed and tell-tale signs of seals used to lock down the room and its occupants inside… probably privacy seals. It seemed there was a very important meeting taking place inside.

"What might a young man like you be doing here?" he heard a feminine voice call to him.

He turned around to find a woman with midnight-black, straight hair reaching down to her waist and coffee brown eyes on a beautiful angular face. She was wearing a half-sleeved, black kimono with blue trimmings that reached down to her legs held closely by a light blue obi. She looked about twenty years old. The way she carried herself indicated that she was a trained kunoichi and had a beautiful figure to boot the beautiful face… especially her C-cup… but he had a reason to be here, so he held back his perverted self.

"To meet with Hokage-sama", he replied with all seriousness.

The woman was taken by surprise by the seriousness displayed by him, but being a kunoichi composed herself and spoke, "Hokage-sama is having a private meeting at this moment… also being his secretary for the time being, I don't remember seeing an appointment for…"

"Naruto", he gave his name.

"I don't remember the name Naruto in the appointment list Naruto-san", she said.

"I don't have an appointment Hisho-san (Secretary-san)… but the matter I wish to talk with Hokage-sama is of utmost importance", he replied.

Normally she would have just made young people like the boy to go away seeing as many people like him came to visit Yondaime-sama just to tell tales to others about them meeting the legendary Konoha No Kiiroi Senkō (Konoha's Yellow Flash)… the Yondaime Hokage… but Naruto's eyes clearly showed that it was not anything of that sort… the seriousness those bright blue orbs held… something which reminded her of Yondaime-sama… told her that he was here for really what he spoke of.

"And what could be so important thing you wish to talk with Hokage-sama?" she asked, albeit she could tell that he was serious about his words, she had a job to do. But whatever she had expected certainly wasn't what she got as the next word that left his mouth made her stiffen in her place and her face turn pale white.

"Orochimaru", he answered in a single word and watched her blood run dry and a hint of disbelief in her eyes.

"I am serious", he said a few seconds later with a completely serious tone seeing her reluctant to move.

The amount of seriousness that was stretched in the eyes of Naruto forced her to move as she rushed to her counter and quickly clicked a special seal used to communicate with the Hokage when he was in the office with privacy seals shutting the room off to the world outside.

"Hokage-sama!" she quickly spoke through the communicator.

…_Meanwhile inside the Hokage's Office…_

After receiving the news that the ronin Naruto participating in the exams was indeed their son Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto… proven by blood test done by Tsunade… they had discussed long of a way to approach him… to find about what truly occurred that night… how was he still alive when they had seen his dead body and even buried it… where had he been all these years… there were too many questions to be answered… and taking the matter with haste wasn't going to solve the questions.

Finally it was decided to let Jiraiya approach him first… seeing that both had something in common… their perverse nature… above all the self proclaimed super pervert had ways to make people reveal their secrets… this was the reason why he was successful has a spy and information gathering shinobi.

From Naruto their talks had moved to Ran… it was decided to keep the information about Naruto a secret from her until they found answers to a few questions…also it was decided that Kushina would look after her training with time-to-time help from Minato for the rest of the month… the training was also to be intensified seeing the opponent she was going to face in the third round… also it was decided that she was ready to finally sign the Toad contract.

"_Hokage-sama!"_ the voice of the secretary disrupted their meeting.

This caught the attention of all the occupants of the room knowing full well she knew that they were having a private meeting… for her to use the special seal… she certainly had a good reason.

"Yes, Yuri-san… What have you called for?" asked Minato.

"_Hokage-sama, sorry for disturbing you… but there is a visitor here who wishes to speak with you of something of utmost importance…"_ the secretary's voice replied.

This caught the attention of all present… the tone of her voice clearly spoke that whoever the visitor was had some really important matter to talk about with Minato… also there was a small hint of fear in her voice.

"What does the visitor wishes to speak with me about?" asked Minato.

"_O-Or-Orochimaru!"_ came the reply stunning all.

"Who is the visitor?" Minato asked with complete seriousness.

"_One of the participants of the Chuunin Selection Exams… the ronin Naruto…"_ was the reply.

This completely stunned all in the room… what Naruto could want to talk about Orochimaru… what was their connection… again a myriad of questions pooped in everyone's minds… all questions which only could be answered by Naruto.

"Send him in", Minato replied back as he unsealed the privacy seals around the room.

…_Outside the Hokage's Office…_

"_Send him in"_, the secretary and Naruto heard the reply of the Yondaime.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Yuri replied back cutting of the connection.

"You can go in", Yuri said to Naruto.

"Thank you…" he replied.

Suddenly losing all the seriousness on his face before he entered the Hokage's office, Naruto turned around to look at the secretary with a smile on his lips hidden behind his mask and his eyes twinkling in mischief.

"Before I enter… would a beautiful lady has you grace me with your full name Hisho-san?" asked Naruto.

Yuri couldn't help it as a small pink tinge graced her cheeks… even though the boy in front of her seemed to be around 12-14 in age… his tone of speech… the smile beneath his mask… his serene handsome face… his glittering blue eyes… made him look so dreamy.

"Ku-Kuroyuri… Hakuro Kuroyuri", she answered with a bit of a stutter which caused the small blush on her face to be more prominent.

"A beautiful name… a name which complements your beautiful midnight black hair… Kuroyuri-san", answered serene smile on his face causing the blush on the secretary's face to increase.

…_Inside the Hokage's face…_

With the privacy seals down the occupants of the room could clearly hear the words being exchanged on the outside between Naruto and Kuroyuri… and none could believe what they were hearing.

Tsunade's left eye had started twitching as her palms had turned into a fist ready to punch something.

Kushina was in disbelief… her baby boy… even if he was a twelve year old… was not only a pervert, but a flirt too… and currently was flirting with Minato's temporary secretary… and by her tone he was succeeding.

Meanwhile Jiraiya was taking notes of the small conversation outside… it was too much to miss out… a use of the classic way working its magic… and by the tone of Kuroyuri the boy was working wonders… he had tried to charm her once and had failed with a beating to add to his failure… and here a young teenage boy succeeding where he had failed… the boy was gold.

Meanwhile both Minato and Sarutobi had the same thought ringing through their mind… Naruto was a mini-Jiraiya… also he had better charming skills than Jiraiya… though on a very small level Minato was proud of his boy… Jiraiya did have a small influence on him.

The door of the room opened and in walked Naruto with a serene look which was quickly replaced by a look of fear as his eyes settled on Tsunade… The blonde Sannin was giving him a death glare and at the same time cracking her knuckles ready to punch him into oblivion… in a flash which surprised all present Naruto held a white flag.

"I come in peace", the words quickly left Naruto's lip as he viciously waved the waved the white flag around… he had no desire to be on the receiving end of another of those flicks… and God forbid if it turned into a punch.

For a minute utter silence reigned the room… but Jiraiya being Jiraiya couldn't hold himself and fell of his chair laughing so loud that it was sure to be heard outside the Hokage tower… the others followed him… not as loud as the Gama Sennin… but enough to annoy Naruto.

"Hahaha… Laugh all you like… I bet you would all do the same thing if you were on the end of one of those superhuman flicks… I hope to Kami I never am on the receiving ends of one of her punches", replied Naruto as he send a mock glare at the five in the room. Somehow their laughter didn't annoy him as much as it should… it rather felt much relieving… especially that of the red head.

"Then give up on your perverted antics", Tsunade said to the boy in a chilling tone, but the laughter made it less threatening.

Naruto didn't know what got into him as a response came to Tsunade's words infiltrated his mind… probably the soul of fellow pervert as he spoke in a nonchalant tone, "You say something, Old-hag-Tsunade?"

…_Somewhere in Konoha…_

A masked Konoha-jounin with gravity defying hair felt elated beyond belief… as if a movie of his favorite series Icha-Icha was being made with him being the star.

In another part of Konoha a Konoha-jounin wearing a green jumpsuit and having thick eyebrows and black hair cut in bowl shaped suddenly felt un-youthful… he did the only thing he felt to regain his youthfulness as he shouted to the heavens above, "CURSE YOU KAKASHI! CURSE YOUR HIP ATTITUDE!"

…_Back in the Hokage's Office…_

The minute those words left Naruto's mouth he was forced to dodge something which seemed to be aimed for his head. It was only his training with the Old Man that helped him dodge the unknown assailant/object. He turned around to look to find a stapler buried deep into the wall of the corridor as it had passed the wall of the room making a hole through it. That could have hurt really, really bad.

"WHAT THE HELL OLD HAG? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" shouted Naruto as he looked at the one who threw the stapler at him.

"STOP CALLING ME AN OLD HAG OR THE STAPLER WOULD BE THE LEAST OF YOUR WORRIES", Tsunade retaliated as she glared as Naruto while she cracked her knuckles.

"You are fifty year old… alive for more than half a century… in normal dictionary that's being old…" Naruto retaliated back not even flinching even after seeing her glare and the cracking of her knuckles.

"Why you… you insolent brat…" Tsunade growled.

It was a good thing that the people in the room had already anticipated such an occurrence and before it could develop into something fearsome, the Sandaime decided to speak up.

"Stop the childishness you two… and aren't you here to speak of something of dire importance with us Naruto-kun", the Sandaime spoke up.

This instantly shut those two as they remembered the reason he was here for.

"Yes… I am here to speak of something of dire importance…" Naruto said and with that launched into the tale of his various encounters with Oto-nin to his latest escapades with Kimimaro – one of Orochimaru's elite, them trying to recruit him and also learning that Orochimaru has something big planned for Konoha during the time of the Chuunin Selection Exams.

The news of Orochimaru planning something for Konoha during the time of the Chuunin Selection Exams had already been known to them as Jiraiya loved to dig information about his old friend… also it didn't come as a surprise to them that Orochimaru tried to recruit Naruto… he was skilled after all.

"I see… we to are aware that Orochimaru is planning something for Konoha…" said the Sandaime after hearing his tale.

"That's great", replied Naruto… it looked like he didn't need to take the trouble of being here.

"Though I must ask… How did you come across that piece of information?" asked Minato.

"I caught one of the Oto-nin that seemed to be at least of the jounin rank, if not a jounin in skills… a small torture session and then placing him under the strongest genjutsu I am capable of… the man begin to rat out about the reasons why Orochimaru so desperately wanted me within his ranks… from that man I learned that Orochimaru has something planned for Konoha… something disastrous… I couldn't find out what… only found that it would be during the timeframe of the Chuunin Selection Exams… also Orochimaru was trying to recruit other skilled nuke-nins and ronins out there for his plans…" answered Naruto.

"Your strongest genjutsu?" questioned Jiraiya.

"**Magen: Jikininki**__**(Demonic Illusion: Human-Eating Ghosts)**…" answered Naruto.

"**Magen: Jikininki**?" asked the Sandaime… by the name it gave them the suggestion what the jutsu was possibly capable of… but it was better to ask.

"Just like the legends, the jutsu creates of Jikininki coming after you to devour your corpse after creating an illusion of your death…" answered Naruto.

"I see…" the word left the lips of the Sandaime… he could tell there was more to the jutsu, but every person had the right to keep their knowledge a secret… others had the same thought.

"To come inform us what you were able to get out of the Oto-nin… it will help us prepare better for any plans Orochimaru has set up for Konoha… and knowing he would is trying to recruit will help us a lot… also knowing skills of the few of those that you encountered… albeit a little help… I am grateful for the information you shared…" said Minato. He was truly thankful.

"Hehehe… no problem -ttebayo", Naruto replied as he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face. Something about the Yondaime looking happy with his decision and saying that he was grateful of him stirred an emotion within him… the one similar when Kushina had smiled at him.

Now that Tsunade had proved the boy in front of him to be his son… he didn't mean to do this… but being the Yondaime he spoke "… though being the Hokage I have to ask this Naruto-kun… it is my duty and responsibility… you who have no connections to Konoha… aren't you risking your life doing this… seeing that if Orochimaru got a wind of this… he will hunt you down… and what do you gain or wish to gain from this?"

The adults in the room could tell that Minato didn't want to ask what he just did… they had seen the conflicting emotions crossing his eyes for a split second… but being the Hokage he had to look at the interest of the village as a whole… it was his duty and responsibility.

"I gain nothing and I wish to gain nothing. Even if I haven't met Orochimaru before, I know of his reputation and of his hatred of Konoha… I despise people like him… and even though I am neither a shinobi nor a citizen of Konoha… it is the village of the Old Man…" answered Naruto.

"Village of the Old Man… what do you mean by that?" asked a puzzled Sarutobi… he along with the others were happy with the reply of Naruto and being experienced shinobis were able to tell the boy was speaking the truth… it also helped that Minato had activated a special seal of his creation which helped him learn whether the person in question was lying or not… the smile on Minato's face indicated that the boy was certainly not lying… so his last words were like a puzzle to all.

Even though on the outside he looked completely calm… on the inside Naruto's mind was in a complete disarray… he had promised the Old Man to never reveal his secret to anyone… especially seeing that he was long since dead… and here he had to go open his big mouth and almost reveal the Old Man's secret…

"I mean that the Old Man was once a shinobi of Konoha and loved the village with all his heart", Naruto clarified his words even if it was only the half truth.

"Mind if I ask who this Old Man is?" asked Minato… to them it was clear by his tone when he spoke of the man, he was a great influence on Naruto.

"He never told me his name", was the simple answer that left Naruto's mouth… it was the truth… the Old Man never told his identity to him… but it became quite obvious when he had used **Mokuton** to create giant forest as their training ground… and when confronted, he admitted of being Senju Hashirama… though the explanation of how he was alive was completely surreal to the young Naruto… to which his eyes at the present took a glance at the necklace hanging between those godly mammary glands of Tsunade.

"It seems he was very special to you Naruto-kun?" asked Kushina with a serene smile on her face.

"Yep, that he was, -ttebayo! He was my mentor, my guide. He was the one who thought of me of the ways of the shinobis. To me he was my family… like a grandfather. I owe my life to him", replied Naruto with the biggest smile behind his mask.

It was clear to all five this Old Man meant a lot to Naruto… it was clear by his tone… his facial expressions… the happiness with which he spoke about the Old Man… but they also felt a hint of sadness in his voice… which to them seemed clear as none of them had missed the use of the past tense when he spoke of the man… the man was dead.

"What about your parents?" asked Jiraiya… he wanted to know whether he knew about his heritage… or at least the boy had some adopted parents?

"I… I don't know about them… I was found by the Old Man in one of the snowy mountains Yuki no Kuni (Land of Snow) on the death door… I was about 2 years old then… he saved me… from then he had been with me until the day he passed away… and I was never adopted because of the problem with my chakra, emotions and lightning…" answered Naruto in a solemn tone.

"D-Do you know nothing about your re-real parents?" asked Kushina… afraid to known his reaction… to hear that he was found in one of the snowy peaks of Yuki no Kuni and was almost going to die struck her the most out of the five… so it was possible to her that he thought that his parents had abandoned him… as his problem with lightning had stayed which seemed to have made his life hard.

He didn't understand why… he certainly didn't understand how… years of solitude… years of loneliness… with the Old Man being his only companion… his reason for not succumbing to the darkness that accompanied loneliness… like every child he too had asked questions about his parents…

_FLASHBACK_

_It had been only about two years since he had started his training under the guidance of Senju Hashirama… since they had moved from place to place finding areas good for training and away from human civilization… from their prying eyes. As the Old Man had promised, he worked him to the ground. _

_He had grown from a naïve six year old to an awesome eight year old… in his eyes. He had also managed to gain some control over his latent abilities… not mastered them… but had enough control to venture back into society without being afraid that they would fear and shun him for his abilities like when he was a child._

_Currently the duo of master and student were training in the snowy mountain ranges of Yuki no Kuni… the same place where the Old Man had found him on the brink of death._

_At the very moment the duo were resting inside a small, warm the Old Man had created using his __**Mokuton**__ ninjutsu and were currently sitting in front of small fire taking in its warmth after a hard day of training… how the hut made of wood didn't burn down was always a mystery to Naruto._

_But that was not the most important thing on his mind for the last week… it was his parents… the Old Man had showed him the place where he had found him when he was barely two years old… it brought forth so many questions that he had suppressed for so long…_

"_D-Did they want me?" the question left his mouth out suddenly as he looked up towards the old man._

_The Old Man didn't stop his work as he continued cooking a bowl full of mushroom mixed soup and about five bowls of miso ramen for their dinner. Even if his young charge hadn't been specific on who he spoke of… he didn't need too… it was obvious too him… it was for that reason he had chosen this place… the place he had found him. He knew that his young charge had kept all his emotions hidden behind his mask over the years and he knew that his young charge had to get it out of his shoulder._

"_Every parent wants their child… if they didn't, the child would never be born…" replied Hashirama._

"_Don't go cryptic on me again… answer me honestly", said a frustrated Naruto… but his spirit was so down, his frustration couldn't be registered._

_There was a silence for a minute in which Hashirama just stood his ground… seeing Hashirama so quiet and still made a dreadful feeling welled up in his heart._

"_They love you more than you could ever imagine… you were the light of their life…" '… so is your sister…' said Hashirama with a faraway look as if contemplating something._

_The look was completely unnoticed by Naruto as his mind and heart replayed the words of Hashirama… the dreadful feeling welled up in him completely disappeared… replaced by something serene and beautiful… his heart nor mind doubted it… as if they already knew the answer on the subconscious level… and he could tell that the Old Man was being truthful… he always had the ability of sensing other's emotions if he concentrated very hard… and at this moment he had the highest form of concentration._

_But suddenly the words of the Old Man struck him in a different way… he said it in present tense and not past tense… the dreadful feeling returned…_

"_Th-They are alive", said Naruto… it wasn't a question._

"_Yes… they are alive", Hashirama replied._

"_Th-Then why…? Was I abandoned?" asked Naruto as tears started to fill up his eyes._

"_I just told you that they loved you more than anything in the world… do you think it to be possible for them to abandon you…? Or do you believe I lied to you?" asked Hashirama._

"_No… I know you didn't lie to me… b-but…" said Naruto but couldn't finish his sentence as he didn't know what to say._

"_No… they didn't abandon you… to them… and the entire world you are dead… they saw you die… buried your two year old body…" answered Hashirama._

_Naruto just sat stumped in his place not knowing what to say… his parents loved him, wanted him… also they were alive… and had not abandoned him… but they believed him to be dead… they had buried his dead body… how the hell was that possible._

"_How?" he asked._

"_It was a clone of you… made by something/someone that could impersonate anyone whom that thing touches… the clone can't even be differentiated from the original… the only ones I think capable would be Mito-chan and you… both of you have the ability to sense emotions… though yours skills with it are still way below the skills of Mito-chan… you will have to train harder…" answered Hashirama._

_The situation was not making head and toe for the eight year old Naruto as he asked, "B-but if they are alive… shouldn't I be…"_

_Hashirama interrupted his young charge as he spoke, "… with them? Yes… you should be with them… but I decided against it…"_

"_Why?" asked Naruto… he just couldn't fathom the Old Man to do something like this._

"_I am not a prophet Naruto… but I see a violent storm raging our world in the future… a war… a war unlike any… unlike the clan wars before the founding of the hidden villages… or the three wars that raged between the hidden villages… and I know it will be started by someone who follows the path and ideology of Madara… the curse that raged the fight between the two sons of the Rikudō__will continue… I want you to stand in the war in the side of the right… the side of true peace… Konoha is my legacy… but you Naruto are not only my legacy, but my student too."_

_END FLASHBACK_

He had promised the Old Man that day that he work to see his dream become real… to see that peace was achieved in the shinobi world. Also from that day he had stopped asking about his parents… it was enough for him to know that they love d him and never abandoned him… also the Old Man had promised that he would meet them in the future…

That didn't mean that he hadn't given up on them completely… after the Old Man had _passed away_… and he started his journey around the Elemental Countries… he tried to get some information of his possible parents… he only found five couples of all the places he had visited of being his parents… but it narrowed down to two because he knew he was of the Uzumaki clan… but being here in Konoha and meeting the blonde genin it was narrowed to a single couple… the genin and him shared a distinguishing feature… the whisker marks on their faces… that couple was now sitting in front of him … he the dead son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.

But now that he thought about it… he could feel the emotions longing, love and pride from those two… it was like an ocean for his emotion sensing skills… and he didn't even need to concentrate that hard… it just was surreal to believe… it was phantasmagoric.

Then he realized that it had been more than a minute since the question was asked… quickly steadying himself he spoke, "No… I don't…" '… or rather I am unsure…'

"I-I see", Kushina said.

"W-Well… I will take my leave… training to do for the third round", said Naruto.

"Indeed… you have a tough match ahead", said Minato.

"Good luck Naruto-kun", said Kushina.

"T-Thanks", Naruto replied as he left the room.

"Well… that went well… to think Orochimaru wants to recruit him… he does have the skills… and his entry in the Bingo Book makes him a good catch for the snake-teme", said Jiraiya.

"Also it seems that he certainly doesn't know of his parents… of you two… but I believe he has his suspicion…" said the Sandaime.

"What do you mean?" asked Minato.

"When Kushina-kun asked Naruto-kun about his real parents… his eyes for a second glanced at you and Kushina… though they seemed unsure…" answered Sarutobi.

"You mean… he believes us to be his parents…?" asked Kushina.

"He is unsure of it… he never mentioned his parents to be dead… so I believe he is searching for them", answered the Sandaime.

…_With Naruto…_

The first thing he had done after leaving the Hokage Tower was to rush at the Ramen Ichiraku for a healthy dose of ramen… about a dozen of bowls… it was a bonus to get to meet Ayame… something that made the stand his most favorite throughout the Elemental Nations…

Currently he was at a large, empty clearing in the forest surrounding Konoha far away from prying eyes and by the looks around it was hardly a shinobi had come across this place. He was fully rejuvenated after eating 16 bowls of the God's food… the only regret being at the stand today was the Ayame wasn't present around… it did make him feel a bit low… but that didn't make the ramen of old man Teuchi any less delicious.

It was a large enough clearing which could easily hold the summons the size of the Legendary Toad Boss Gamabunta and still have enough place to summon another about half the size of the Toad Boss. It also had a small stream surrounded by a couple of cherry blossom trees. It was perfect for his training.

But before he could begin his training he needed his body to be healed completely from the use of **Shippuu Jinrai**… an incomplete jutsu… a double-edged sword… similar to the likes of opening three gates of the **Hachimon**… putting a huge stress on his body and slowly rupturing his body from the inside… it was only because of his other **Kekkei Genkai** at work… **Iyahi-tai (Healing Body) – Chiton (Heal release)**… as it continuously healed his body from the damage the **Shippuu Jinrai** caused was he not in the similar state as Bushy Brows.

By now his internal wounds were almost completely healed… but the fatigue and stress from using **Shippuu Jinrai**__was still present… it was only the many number of times he had used the jutsu was he able to mask his fatigue… normally he would just let a night's rest and his **Iyahi-tai Kekkei Genkai** to do its work, but today was special… he had to get on to work on the summons as early as possible… he had already made the old white tiger wait for five days since they had met.

Forming an O-shaped hand seal with his fingers interlaced with each other…

"**Chiton: Hōsen Saisei (Heal release: Phoenix Sage Rebirth)!**" he said…

A second later the words left his mouth… his body was surrounded by reddish-green chakra as if a second skin… the chakra surrounding his body stayed for thirty seconds completely healing him of all wounds, fatigue and stress… it was the ultimate Iryō Ninjutsu which was born by his **Iyahi-tai Kekkei Genkai** and learning the secret behind the instantaneous healing ability of Senju Hashirama from any sort of wounds.

When he first created the jutsu, it took a full five minutes for him to completely heal his body with the specialized hand seal he created and ten without use of any seals… now he could heal any and all sorts of wounds, fatigue and stress within thirty seconds using the hand seal and two minutes without a seal… he had shortened the time considerable in the past three years… and was still working to use the jutsu at the level of the Old Man.

Bringing back the right sleeves of his tracksuit his eyes laid on the white tiger claw print on his right hand just below his palm… it was one time use only… to summon the old white tiger before he summoned his first tiger of the Tiger clan.

Smearing a small amount of blood on the tattoo… gathering a small amount of chakra… the amount the old white tiger had mentioned would be enough to summon him… normally it required a huge amount to someone the old tiger, but for now he had made an exception… with that he slammed his right hand on the ground releasing the gathered chakra.

A large array summoning seal appeared beneath his right hand… a second later with a blast of smoke there appeared in place of the seal the old white tiger…

"You made me wait for five days to be summoned young one…" said the old white tiger as he brandished his staff at Naruto in a mock threatening manner.

"Sorry about that Tora-O-jii-jii… the exams just ended a few hours ago…" replied Naruto and with that told the old tiger of his time in the Forest of Death and meeting the Hokage.

"That was quite a tale you had for me young cub… and seems an adventure is coming your way… one which will have a blood one no matter which side wins…" spoke the old tiger in a sagely tone which caused a frown to appear on Naruto's face.

The old tiger had expected that reaction from Naruto and decided to change the topic of their talk… to take the talk to the reason he had asked the young cub to summon him here… he spoke, "Let those capable of dealing with the situation come up with the plans… you concentrate on the reason I asked you to summon me here…"

"Right… well here goes nothing…" said Naruto.

He flipped his hands through the required hand seals for the jutsu after smearing some blood on the palm of his right hand… gathering a huge amount of his chakra he released it as he slammed his right hand on the ground… just like before a summoning seal appeared on the ground followed by a large cloud…

"_WHO IN THE WORLD SUMMONED ME WHILE I WAS BUSY TAKING A BATH_?" growled a feminine voice from within the giant cloud caused by the **Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)** which made the hair on Naruto's body to get goose bumps. After all

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED!

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**About Tsunade collecting a blood sample of Naruto while she flicked Naruto's head… Sakura is shown skills of extracting poison out of one's body without doing any tear and wear of the body in Naruto Shippuden… Tsunade taught her the skills… so something as collecting a sample of blood without letting the person in question notice should be easy for her.**

**For the 4 Kekkei Genkai Naruto possesses:**

**1 – Unnamed **_**Kekkei Genkai**_**: has the ability to let the body draw in Natural Energy**

**2 – Iyahi-tai (Healing Body) – Chiton (Heal release)**

**3 - ?**

**4 - ?**

**Unnamed Kekkei Genkai – sensory abilities, helps to enhance the power of his nin-tai-gen jutsu, physical strength, speed, and stamina, reflexes, durability and perception ability. **

**The ability is similar to those trained in the art of Senjutsu to achieve the Sage Mode… though his current prowess over his not as great as one whom have achieved the Sage Mode… and has no additional ability gained like those trained by the animals.**

**Iyahi-tai (Healing Body)**_** – **_**Chiton (Heal release) – as the name suggest… Naruto's body has the ability to produce healing chakra on its own and heal any wound he receives instinctively… making him immune to most poisons, wounds, cuts, burns, etc. and by concentrating can heal major wounds too… also helps in use of Iryō (Medical) ninjutsu with relative use… Chiton written with the first kanji of the word Chiyu (healing).**

**Additional Info****: Only one of Naruto's Kekkei Genkai will be inheritable to his children. The other Kekkei Genkais are special to Naruto like Senju Hashirama's Mokuton Kekkei Genkai.**

**This is will be a Harem like all of my stories… because I want it to be so.**

**And for those that comment of not having a Naruto-Hinata pairing… go see my profile… I am a fan of the Naruto-Hinata pairing… so just suck it up… your comments that you are bored with the pairing and don't like it means jack-shit to me.**

**Also Iyahi-tai (Healing Body)**__**– Chiton (Heal release) doesn't mean eternal youth and immortality.**


	6. Free Time!

**Free Time!**

It had been two weeks since the end of the _sudden_ preliminary round of the Chuunin Selection Exams and all the finalists of the exams were busy training for their competition in the finals…

From what Ran had heard Hinata had been training under the tutelage of her father after Hiashi learned of the skills his daughter had shown during the match. He was surprised knowing to find his eldest with such skills and thus decided that he didn't need to wait more to start Hinata's advanced **Jūken** training.

The same was with Shikamaru and Shino; they were training with their respective clans for the preparations of the finals. As for Sasuke, she learned that Kakashi-sensei had decided to go give some personal training to the Emo-Uchiha. It irritated her to no end when she received that piece of news from her father and then later learned that Sakura just like her had no clue as to where their sensei and Sasuke was until she informed her. That day she saw a look on her father's face that she hadn't seen in years… he was angry… and it was clear as to who the anger was going to be directed at. Then there was Neji… she never liked him and only tolerated him because of Hinata… who despite being looked down by that jerk still thought of him as his brother… the boy currently was training with his sensei Gai and also did some personal training with Tenten's help.

The information she received about the training of the foreign-genins of Sunagakure and Iwagakure was that the two teams were given two private training grounds to train at which would keep their secrets to them. It was a show of good faith by her father… by Konoha… one that he wished would help a bit to the alliance between the two villages and Konohagakure.

As for her friends that had not reached the finals… she heard Ino had also given more importance to her training and was working with her father and her sensei to improve her skills… Kiba too trained more vigorously with his mother and sister… Tenten trained alongside Neji with Gai-sensei… somehow to her surprise Sakura had found herself under the training of Kurenai-sensei… how that had happened she would never know… and as for Lee, the boy was asked to remain bedridden for the next two months.

Her training had also come along smoothly with her mother taking on the role of her sensei… and as one would expect from the Akai Chishio No Habanero, her mother had put her through one of the harshest training sessions she had till date… but she certainly wasn't complaining… she needed to improve herself to fight against her opponent at the third round and also win against other opponents too… especially when there were opponents like the likes of Naruto… he had shown to all the difference in their levels… and for some reason she had no desire to stay behind him.

Her training mostly consisted of improving her current skills along with sharpening her reflexes and reaction time… the latter part was mostly done by means of her mother shooting rubber balls and water balloons at her… also she had signed the Toad Summoning Contract and had learned to summon the toads… though she didn't like the fact that she had to use the chakra of the Kyūbi to help summon Gamabunta… she never liked the feeling of using the Kyūbi's chakra, but her training under her mother… the former of Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi… and her father had helped her a lot and now she was able to control up to one tail of the Kyūbi's chakra in the first form of a Jinchūriki… she only hoped that she would never be forced to use the power of the Kyūbi.

Today she was enjoying a free day from her training… a full day to enjoy for herself.

Her very first stop had been the Hyūga clan house where she had persuaded Hinata to join her and then later visiting Ino's house to invite Ino to join her too. As the trio of girls made their way towards one of the restraints of Konoha, they were joined by Sakura and Tenten on the way… from there it had been a girls' day out… they had come across the boys of their teams, but had shooed them of saying it was a girls' day out. Though neither of them shared information of their respective training from each other… they decided it to be their day of so there would be no talking about their training and ninja duties. It was mid way through the day that the five genins were joined by other kunoichis they were friends with… Kurenai, Anko, Shizune, Yūgao, Yakumo and Hana… it was no wonder they were drawing in so much attention from the population of Konoha… especially the male counterpart.

"How is your training going on Hinata, Ran?" asked Hana… those two of the five genins that had entered the Chuunin Selection Exams had made it to the third round and both had a really tough opponent to go against.

"Great! I just wish kaa-chan was not such a slave-driver", commented Ran.

"Well it is to be expected from Kushina-sama… after all your opponent has some great skills (Tenten nodded at that) and the second _possible_ opponent you will be facing will be one of the strongest genin I have seen so far", replied Kurenai.

"I know… that is why I am giving it my best… but that still doesn't remove the fact that kaa-chan is a slave driver", added Ran… the group couldn't help but laugh at her misfortune.

"My training is coming along great too… O-tou-sama is working me through the ground to learn the advanced **Jūken** moves… they are really tough…" stated Hinata.

"Well that's to be expected… there is a reason why the **Jūken** is so feared throughout the Elemental Nations", Tenten pointed out which everyone agreed too.

"True… b-but I wish I could get more time to work on the moves I was working on with Tsunade-sama and Kushina-sama…" replied Hinata in a bit of disappointed tone.

It was something that had shocked almost all present during the preliminaries… the jutsu Hinata used had made quite a stir… and put the meek, shy girl as one of the strongest contenders for the finals… as of all the finalists only Hinata and Naruto had shown some real skills while the others had made it easy to the finals… with the exception of Uchiha Sasuke as the boy was unable to perform his best because of the curse mark.

But before anyone could say any further their eyes caught the sight of two girls animatedly talking with each other… and being a shinobi that they were it only took a glance for them to know that the two girls were trained as a shinobi… well at least to the more experienced of the group.

The two girls seemed to be around 12-14… one had long black hair, pale skin and dark brown eyes and she wore a pink sleeveless, low-cut kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-colored swirls that went to her ankles, around his waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and she wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps and to add to her feminine appearance, she also wore a dark choker around his neck… the other girl had fair skin, amber eyes, ultramarine eye shadow and light blue hair and she was wearing a karate top and skirt bottom, with a pouch she wore at the front of her outfit and the most highlighting of her features was the light blue paper flower in her hair…

As it was the time of the Chuunin Selection Exams, finding foreign shinobis walking the streets of the village was a normal occurrence so appearance of those two girls normally wouldn't garner much interest of the other shinobis… but getting a good look at them, neither of the two girls wore a hitai-te… but before they could decide as to who were to follow the girls and who was to go inform Hokage-sama, those two approached them.

"Kunoichi-sans… would you mind telling us the location of the place where the best ramen is served in the village?" asked the girl with long black hair.

"No, no… tell us of the onsen where most of the woman visit?" asked the one with blue hair.

The group of kunoichis looked a bit surprised by those questions… according to them, the map detailing the tourist attractions of Konoha would certainly give these two girls information on the restaurants and onsen in the village… but their questions were more to the point and so they deiced to answer them… but before they could answer they watched in amusement as those two started to bicker amongst them…

"I am telling you we only need to know of the place where they serve the best ramen… that should be enough", said the black haired girl.

"And I am telling you… the onsens are our best bet", replied the blue-haired girl.

"I don't think so… he will be too busy with his work to indulge in his _habits_…" replied the black haired girl… she believed it to be so.

"Come on… you know that's just impossible… even in worst and serious times he would find a way to be at the onsens", said the blue haired girl… she was completely confident in her belief.

"And the same goes for ramen", the black haired girl replied back…

The two girls to the group of kunoichis seemed to be on a stand-still… confident about their words…

"Are you two searching for someone?" asked a new voice familiar to the Konoha kunoichis… all eyes turned to find Kushina and Tsunade walking towards them…

It also stopped the glaring contest between the two non-Konoha kunoichis as they recognized two new comers… their eyes widened in reorganization as the red-head and the blonde are considered to be one of the strongest kunoichis alive… the AKAI CHISHIO NO HABANERO and KONOHA NO NAMEKUJI TSUNADE-HIME… two legends in their own rights…

"So are you two looking around for someone?" Kushina asked the two girls again… something about the girls felt odd to her and Tsunade… but neither could pinpoint what.

It was the black haired girl who was the first one to regain composure as she spoke, "Y-Yes… we are searching for our ma-friend…" the slip of tongue didn't go amiss by most.

It was the blue-haired girl that continued after her friend as she spoke, "Yes… we are searching for our friend… spiky, red-hair… blue eyes… mask wearing pervert (at this the black haired glared at her companion)… he is participating in the Chuunin Selection Exams…"

"He isn't a pervert… he just has some very odd tendencies…" the black haired girl said to clarify her friend's stupid statement about their friend being a pervert.

"Right… odd tendencies… peeking at bath houses… groping girls he knows… having a collection of adult literature… and _that_ jutsu… truly just odd tendencies…" supplied the blue haired girl causing the face of the black haired girls face to turn scarlet with each word she spoke.

It didn't take much long for the Konoha kunoichis to know the person (boy) in question… even for Yakumo who had yet to meet him… also their belief of him being a pervert just solidified…

"You are looking for Naruto-kun", said Kushina… it wasn't a question as there was no other participating in the exam matched the description given by the blue haired girl…

Naruto-kun… that word and the emotion behind the word caught everyone off guard except for Tsunade…

"Y-Yes", replied the black haired girl.

…_Meanwhile with Naruto…_

It had been a tough week for him… for he dwelled into the ninja arts he had very little knowledge of… and so throughout the week he was worked to the ground learning about Tiger Clan and the its members and their abilities… starting a new friendship with them… except with one… Momoka… the first of the Tiger Clan he summoned… and unfortunately for him, being his first summons she became his primary summon according to Old White Tiger…

The two of them… he and Momoka… were not even on the same page of thoughts and there was hardly a moment when there wouldn't be a fight between them… somehow that tigress had the ability to grate his nerves… it also didn't help that the first time he summoned her, she was having a relaxing bath at one of the natural hot springs in their land… and she seemed completely irritated with him for summoning her from her relaxing bath… and from the very first day they were on the opposite sides of the coin… it also didn't help that she was asked by the Old White Tiger to help him make acquaintance with the others of the Tiger Clan he would summon… it was a wonder they came to like him, especially the boss Kansuke who happened to be the father of Momoka… summoning Kansuke had drained him of all of his chakra.

Now here he was enjoying some well deserved rest after a week of rigorous training… training which had his depleted by the end of the day… and for that reason he was here to enjoy himself… an entire day at the onsen… it sure was relaxing…

The Onsens… the greatest gift to mankind… the Old Man believed it to be so and he agreed too… this was the best relaxing spot for all… and above all the best place to have a peek at the marvelous beauties of nature…

Suddenly a chill ran down his spine forcing him to drop the binoculars… he quickly looked around to find him to be in no danger… thus it confused him for that sudden chill running down his spine… bringing the binoculars back to his eyes and decided to enjoy the wonderful view that he was enjoying a moment ago… though something on his mind was nagging him that he was forgetting something…

"**Hyōton: Hyōshō Rō no Jutsu (Ice Release: Ice Crystal Prison Technique)…**" he heard a familiar voice call out…

It took less than a second for him to recognize the bearer of the voice… but unfortunately for him he didn't have enough time to react as his body was completely encased by ice crystals…

"See… I told you… I am always right…" he heard another familiar voice which like the previous one it took him less than a second to recognize… even after his whole body was frozen solid.

Now the feeling that he was forgetting something made sense… he was supposed to meet him soon after the second round of the exams were over… he had completely forgotten about that… no wonder their voices seemed a bit pissed off…

"Kukuku… the gaki is truly bold… to spy on an onsen in a ninja village… I like it", another voice chimed in… this voice seemed to have a mischievous ring to it…

"And the brat is going to learn why it is so dangerous to spy on an onsen in a ninja village", said another voice in a bone-chilling tone…

Both of the voices he recognized… and just to be certain he focused to get a sense of them. What he sensed made him pale… it was not just his friends and those two, but about more than a dozen of kunoichis along with his two friends just behind him… and their emotions made his face go paler… more than half seemed to be furious at him, while a few had some very confusing emotions for him to decipher…

…_With the black haired kunoichi…_

She was angry… scratch that… she was FURIOUS!

It had been about three week since Naruto had left for Konoha with his main objective being warning the Hokage about Orochimaru… and for that they had decided to use the Chuunin Selection Exam as the reason to enter the village.

At first she had been worried about that plan… but also knew that he had already infiltrated Suna before and with both of their help had infiltrated Kiri… also she had faith in his skills… after all he had given Zabuza-sama a run for the money and also had defeated Hōzuki Mangetsu – Kijin No Sairai (Second Coming Of The Demon)… it was those two battles of Naruto that had shown her the true extent of his powers… and it was his killing of Hōzuki Mangetsu that had landed him in the Kirigakure Bingo Book as an A-rank ronin and was given the name Narukami No Naruto (Naruto Of the Thundering Spirit).

His abilities made her respect him and also they frightened her a bit… he was a couple of years younger than her and yet he possessed powers and abilities rivaling the strongest… maybe not the Kages, but close by… she always wondered how strong he would be in his prime… and then there was his dream to surpass that man… to learn of the abilities and powers of his sensei she couldn't help but be shocked… to think that such a power was not a fairy tale, but a reality and he wished to surpass it and she believed he could.

But that was not her mind at the very moment… it was that the idiot had both her and her blue haired companion worried as he didn't meet them after the second round of the exams when a break is given and it was what they had decided… but for some reason he hadn't met up with them even after a week and that worried her, after all he had ability to attract trouble… and the trouble was never the small kind.

For that reason both of them had decided to make a trip to Konoha after waiting for him for a week… and arriving here they seemed to learn that he was in no form of trouble which irritated her the most… it also brought forth the question as to what had him go against his own words… she needed answers and she was going to get them…

Unfortunately for her, her companion seemed to have no worry of the situation… she had even gone to say that Naruto was probably spying on the onsens in Konoha the entire time… which she was certain was close to the truth but yet she had kept denying it even after knowing of his perverted antics and being a target of his antics…

So one had to understand her state of mind as the first time she saw him in Konoha had been him spying on one of the onsens… she didn't find him at a ramen stand nor at a training ground preparing for the third round… not caring that the ones that had followed her would know of her abilities her hands sped through a few hand seals…

"**Hyōton: Hyōshō Rō no Jutsu!**" she said as she finished the hand seals and encased her target in ice crystals… and seeing that her jutsu worked an victorious smirk spread on her lips…

That aside she could see the shock on the faces of the Konoha-nins, especially the older ones… Hyōton is the advance nature Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki Clan of Mizu no Kuni… the Yuki Clan was said to be wiped out during the civil war that raged the country… so it would certainly be a surprise for many to find a wielder of Hyōton Kekkei Genkai… luckily for her, her companion came to her help dissolving the shocked look on faces of the kunoichis.

…_With the blue haired girl…_

"You are so dead…" she said to Naruto… they were alone as the others were discussing of his punishment.

The boy in question was currently tied up after being captured red handed for peeking at the woman's side of the onsen by not only Haku but also by about thirteen Konoha kunoichis… he was so dead… especially considering that one of the Konoha kunoichis happened to be Senju Tsunade that was not only legendary for her medical ninjutsu, but also her cursed luck at gambling and her hatred for perverts… and then there was Uzumaki Kushina and also that red eyes

"Aren't you going to help me?" she heard him ask.

"Indeed…" she replied with a slight mischievous smirk on her face and knowing Naruto as she did, she knew he would catch onto her… and that he did within a couple of seconds…

"And that would be when?" he asked her… she could see his eyebrows twitching in annoyance…

"Well… you did make us wait for a week…" she replied in a sad tone which caused his eyebrows to twitch further in annoyance… she really loved his annoyed face… and just wished she could remove that damn mask of his face and see the entity of his face… his annoyed reactions were fun to watch.

"They'll kill me", he spoke…

"Indeed they will", she replied back… wasn't that obvious and something he should have learned a long time ago… after all he was almost killed before a few times… and it was clear that he understood the meaning behind her words from his facial expressions…

"They are no ordinary kunoichis… two of them are S-rank… Senju Tsunade and Uzumaki Kushina… and Yūhi Kurenai can also be dangerous in such situations can be as dangerous as an S-rank-nin with her genjutsu", he tried to put forth his point which she was well aware of…

"So…?" she trailed the question…

"Please… help me… I'll do anything you ask" she heard him say… that was it… hook, line and sinker… this was what she was waiting for…

"Anything I ask?" she asked… this was it; his answer would seal his fate…

"Yes…" his reply came… she could feel the defeated tone behind it…

Oh, how long she had waited for this… to find him under her thumbs… she was going to relish it when she would make her request… even thinking about that, she couldn't help as giggles left her lips… giggles of impending doom…

…_With the remaining girls and women…_

They were having a very long discussion… a discussion to find a suitable punishment for the red head ronin… a punishment that would make him reconsider him of his habits…

Normally in such a circumstance a pervert found peeping on the bath house would be beaten to the inch of his life or in Kurenai's case would be tortured to insanity by her genjutsus and with Anko would be running for his life from her snake summons… but Naruto was taken as a special case… Tsunade had described him to be the Jiraiya-type… as in no amount of beating, torture were going to make to his thick skull… and to further promote that notion was his action at the end of the preliminary round… groping Tsunade and Temari in front of so many people… also the accounts of those two girls that had accompanied him for a long time… they needed some strict actions against him… thus a meeting was needed.

Leaving behind the blue haired girl to keep an eye on Naruto… as the girl seemed to have no interest in foreseeing the punishment for Naruto and rather seemed to be accustomed with his antics… it took them a while but finally they had come to a decision… to think that there was such an ingenious punishment for someone like the red head, it was truly brilliant…

"That is quite a brilliant idea Ran… what brought that forth…" Kurenai inquired… who thought that the girl had such a devious mind… she certainly didn't.

"Well… it was because of the way he acted before the start of the first round of exams… and…" Ran stated… but stopped in mid sentence… this got everyone curious and their eyes were more focused on her making her feel nervous… especially her mother's stare… the next words she was going to speak was going to put her in a lot of trouble…

"And…?" most of the girls-women asked in unison.

"And… you see… I felt like… you know…" Ran tried to say it, but she just couldn't find the right words...

Luckily for her distraction came in the form of laughter… evil laughter at that… all eyes turned to see that the source of the laughter to be the blue haired ronin who now sported a mischievous grin… and only her black haired companion caught the meaning behind it…

Deciding to not think much of it on the insistence of her companion they made their way towards their captive and just like they had anticipated he didn't seem to have much fear of any kind of punishment… oh! How wrong the boy was… they were going to enjoy seeing a pervert suffer…

…_With Naruto…_

He looked at the girls and women in horror as they announced his punishment… a punishment which according to them was befitting his crime… a punishment he never even dreamed in his dreams… actually he did and it turned out to be a nightmare…

Now a couple of hours later since his punishment had started his right hand had gone numb… how can the world be so cruel as he glared at everyone around him… that smiles on their face he was going to a find a way to wipe them away…

"Finished!" he groaned out…

"Good job brat! Hope this teaches you a lesson… '_I will never peek on girls/women… I will never grope a female_'…" said Tsunade in a haughty tone… he could see the haughty smirk on most of the faces…

"I _hope_ so too…" he muttered…

"What did you say _Naruto-kun_?" asked Kushina with a glare which made him sweat…

"N-nothing", he replied… seriously something about Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina made him acknowledge her words more than the words of the others…

"I hope you have learned your lesson Naruto-sama", the black haired girl spoke making his eye twitch.

"I did…" he said making it as convincing as possible… and it seemed like most seemed convinced, except two… one was his blue haired companion and the other being Namikaze-Uzumaki Ran…

He understood that she (the blue haired girl) would catch onto him, after all she knew him the longest apart from the Old Man… but how the daughter of the Yondaime caught onto him he would never understand…

But he knew that his right hand was going to remain sore from all the work for a long-long time… and the memory of this punishment was forever going to be etched in his memories and would give him nightmares in the future.

…_Normal point of view…_

It had been two weeks since that incident… since Naruto had faced a punishment that was giving him nightmares. Somehow, someway that he didn't understand both Haku and Konan had become good friends with the girls that had been in the group that had delivered punishment on him… how he would never come to know… but since then they spent any time they could with those girls.

Today was not such a day for both of them had decided that they would join him in training… as it had been quite some time since they trained with each other… because of that the three were currently at a private training ground provided by Konoha and its privacy was further increased by Naruto's privacy seals which could only be breached by those who knew of Uzumaki sealing methods.

Currently the three were engaged in a handicap spar with Haku and Konan going against Naruto and if the destruction of the ground was any indication the three had been in one hell of a fight. As it was the three were going on for the past couple of hours sparing amongst each other and by now their chakra reserves and stamina was severely low… they just had exerted themselves to their limit and yet a winner was to be decided… and the only reason one of them was not killed or out of commission was because some of their jutsus were restricted from use…

"It's time we end this", Konan said to Haku… she was at her limit and knew well enough that the next attack from her would be the last and to her it seemed that neither Haku nor Naruto could go any further… though he seemed much better than the two of them.

"Yes", replied Haku… she too had similar thoughts in her mind.

Quickly throwing a few paper pieces towards Naruto which formed the shape of shurikens as they sped towards the red head, Konan clapped her hands together which resulted in compressing the wind and transformed into a powerful gale. The gale worked to speed up the shurikens and increase their power and also their ability to wound… the combination of **Kami Shuriken (Paper Shuriken)** and **Fūton: Reppūshō (Wind Release: Gale Palm) **was one deadly combo.

Meanwhile Haku sped through a few hand seals as the air around her turned cold… ending her hand seals on the Tora (Tiger) hand seal…

"**Hyōton: Tsubame Fubuki (Ice Release: Swallow Snow Storm)!**" Haku called out… the water around her froze and formed cluster of ice needles in the form of miniature swallows which then made their way towards their target.

"Shit!" was the only word that left Naruto's lips as he looked at the two jutsus heading his way… both of them were unavoidable considering the speed they were moving at and taking into account that **Shippuu Jinrai** was one of the forbidden jutsus… there remained only one option… so his hands flipped through four hand seals ending at the Tatsu (Dragon) hand seal…

"**Ranton: Reizā Sākasu (Storm Release: Laser Circus)!**" Naruto called out… as he called the name a halo of bright energy spreads around his hands as the jutsu was activated, then the jutsu encircled his hands and from it energy beams were shot out towards the incoming jutsu.

The beams of energy collided in mid air with the shurikens of paper enhanced by wind ninjutsuof Konan and the cluster of ice needles shaped in the form of miniature swallows of Haku… the jutsus destroyed each other in an elegance display of fireworks.

"It's over", the voice of Naruto spoke from behind Haku and Konan making their eyes widen… there standing behind the two of them were clones of Naruto holding a kunai to their throats… which made them groan out loud.

…_A few hours later…_

The trio of the ronins was currently at one of the restaurant of Konoha… not an expensive one, but a nice and comfortable one… and also not the Ichiraku Ramen stand much to the annoyance of Naruto.

"That **Ranton: Reizā Sākasu** jutsu of yours is seriously annoying do you know that…" Konan commented as the three of them waited for the arrival of their food.

"And isn't your paper ninjutsu an annoyance too", Naruto countered…

Unfortunately that wasn't the right words to say at the moment as he received a slap at the back of his head making his head meet with the table…

"What the hell was that for?" Naruto growled as he looked directly at Konan in annoyance.

"That was for you being cheeky…" Konan replied as she glared back at the red head… he could really be annoying at times… and also recently she learned that he had been flirting with a lot of girls, one of which was the girl at the ramen stand… that certainly wasn't boding well with her.

The glaring contest continued for another few minutes gathering a crowd of lookers…

"Please stop it you to… you are gathering a crowd…" Haku spoke up getting the attention of the two and stopping their glaring contest…

"…and Naruto-sama you should be more considerate about others' feelings", Haku said confusing the hell out of Naruto… as she too had similar thoughts as Konan and very well knew how Konan felt.

"What does that mean?" asked a confused Naruto.

"I-it means… y-you should…" Haku tried to say… but what was she going to say she didn't know… the truth was certainly not her option she believed…

"That you are an idiot", Konan spoke up… which made Haku sigh in relief…

Before Naruto could respond to that the waitress arrived with their food cutting their fight… but it gave a lot of time for Naruto to think. The behavior of the two seemed to be ticked of these days and he seemed to be reason of it… how he didn't know but wanted to correct it as he never liked his friends being cross with him, especially these two. Both of them had and always will have a very special place in his life… with Konan being his friend and companion for the past three years since he and the Old Man had stumbled upon her… and Haku because the girl had lived a life similar to his as she was hated because of something out of her control, something that was part of her blood and family.

But his further thoughts were interrupted as his eyes laid upon someone he hadn't met for the past three weeks since the preliminary round… entering the restaurant were Temari, Kankurou and Gaara… that caused a grin to spread on his face… it always was fun tormenting the blonde. Also it seemed that he wasn't the only one that caught the sight of the three entering the restaurant… Konan and Haku did too… it was really easy as Gaara was leaking a huge amount of killing intent…

"Aren't those the children of Kazekage you spoke of?" asked Haku… she had heard of them from Konan, even when the girl had not been to Suna with Naruto.

"Yep… that's them alright", replied Naruto as a mischievous grin spread on his face… he currently was not wearing his mask and had placed a small genjutsu on his face which showed he was wearing a mask to anyone and only could be broken when one knew what they wanted to look at.

"So that blonde must be Temari…" muttered Konan enough for the other two occupants of the table to hear… only Haku understood the meaning behind her tone and words while Naruto just looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Yes… that's Temari…" Naruto replied… he just couldn't understand as to what was wrong with Konan… never had he seen her in such a mood… well except when he had told her of his entire stay at Sunagakure… but even then her reactions were certainly not this extreme.

'Seriously what's wrong with her?' Naruto couldn't help but think as he looked at Konan.

But before anyone Naruto could think further on the situation with Konan he felt a strong dose of killing intent focused completely on him… it didn't even need a genius to know who the killing intent was coming from if the looks of that person was any indication…

Blue eyes met Green eyes… one as cold as the freezing poles and one glimmering with mischief…

The tension in the very atmosphere could be felt by all those in the restaurant, but everyone decided to ignore even with the tension kept on growing… it was finally good thing for all when the blonde companion if the one with gourd spoke something in his ears and he stopped the staring contest and walked away.

"Something with those three isn't right…" muttered Naruto as he watched the sand siblings go to their table…

…_Elsewhere…_

A meeting of the Konoha jounins had just finished with the priority being the security of the village during the finals of the Chuunin Selection Exams. With information given by Naruto and that gathered by Jiraiya, it was now confirmed to them that Orochimaru was going to launch a full scale attack on Konoha during the finals… and by Jiraiya's information there was a chance that Suna was a part of it too as Orochimaru was heard to have approached the Kazekage.

"So… for Orochimaru to do something on such a large scale he should be fairly confident about his forces…" commented Jiraiya in a grave tone.

"Or he has some ulterior motive behind this invasion", added Tsunade.

"Whatever it is, we can't let Orochimaru walk out of Konoha alive… we have to see that he is to be dealt with", said Minato in a serious tone.

"And what about the boy Gaara… he is the Jinchūriki of Ichibi No Shukaku", said Kushina her voice wavering… it was clear why as she too once was a Jinchūriki… and now Ran had taken on the burden from her.

"If things escalate to that… we will have to see to it that he is stopped as it seems that the boy is their trumph card", said Minato… he understood his wife's plight but for the safety of the village he would stop the boy by any means if necessary.

"I think… we should leave Gaara to Naruto", said Jiraiya.

"And why should we do that?" Kushina asked in a very chilly tone… even if Naruto was powerful as she had seen, the things she had heard about Gaara certainly didn't bode well with her… so for someone suggestion Naruto or Ran to against the boy was not a good idea.

But Jiraiya didn't seemed threatened by her as he calmly spoke, "because apparently both seemed to have had been friends or at least good acquaintance when he was in Sunagakure… and he has already fought Gaara once in a life threatening battle in the _desert_… and apparently Gaara is the reason for him to be participating in the Chuunin Selection Exams from what I gathered."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kushina as her voice chilled a few degrees more.

This time it wasn't Jiraiya but Minato who answered, "we all have already concluded that Naruto has no reason to enter the Chuunin Selection Exams… he is already on the level of a jounin… as it was Naruto didn't need to enter the exams to inform us about the invasion…which made us wonder why? The answer was simple, it was because of Gaara. Somehow he learned that Gaara was entering the exams… I don't know whether he knew the reason why… but here he was to stop Gaara from causing chaos… and it is clear that him entering as till date restrained Gaara from killing his opponent outright like he would usually do… Gaara has already marked his opponent as Naruto."

Yep… that was a logic none could deny…

"That aside… tell me of these two girls that I heard are Naruto's companions", Jiraiya spoke up trying to defuse the serious mood… also he was eager to know about those two… after all her had decided to make the red head his protégé.

…_Elsewhere…_

She had finally done it… two months of rigorous training later she had finally been able to complete it. Ran could hardly hold the ecstasy she was currently feeling within herself… she was on cloud nine… she just wanted to rush to her parents and show it to them… show that her genuine hard work had finally paid off… but her body at the moment wasn't supporting her as she had been training continuously for the past four-five hours to complete the jutsu… she knew she was close and wanted it to be completed before the finals and as early as possible so that she could have a better grip on using it.

Taking a rest for an hour or two to let the fatigue from the training could be washed away and also the numbness in her right hand. Now feeling a bit relaxed she was back on her feet in their personal training ground behind their house she focused on sharpening her use with the jutsu… bringing her right hand forward and gathering her chakra on it she felt the desired result seeping its fruits… a self-sustaining, blue orb of chakra fitting her palm was formed within a couple of seconds… she couldn't help as a victorious smile etched on her face at seeing the **Rasengan** in her palm…

But she very well knew that she was far from using that in a fight as the **Rasengan** needed to be formed instantaneously for it to be greatly effective and the reason behind its creation… so with that she was back to work… to shorten the time in forming the blue orb of chakra even by a millisecond.

…_Elsewhere…_

She had finally done it… she had completed the first step behind the jutsu and even though it was far from completing the jutsu she was happy with her progress… not only that her father had complimented her on her achievement which had made this a great day for her as it had been years since he had complimented her for something… so with new vigor she was back at her training and do better in the finals.

She knew her opponent was the most skilled and someone she new couldn't defeat now, but she was going to give it her all... she had to not only prove it to her father, but to her opponent as well that she was strong… she was not a weakling because of kind heart… and she had promised her best friend… the one she considered a sister… that she was going to give 110% in this fight and show the world the strength and awesomeness of Hyūga Hinata.

…_Elsewhere…_

She could hardly concentrate on her training… with everything that was going on her mind was in a disarray… and of all things she didn't wish to meet or see him… but it seemed luck was not on her side as she walked into him at the restaurant… she was certain she wouldn't find him there as a ramen-freak like him would certainly not be in a place where ramen wasn't sold… but to her frustration he was there… and not only was he there, but he was with two girls she hadn't seen around… and he seemed quite friendly with those, especially the one with the blue paper flower in her hair…

Something in her had stirred seeing that scene… a primal instinct she never knew she had… something that seemed to have scared Gaara too… though she didn't know of that. So they had hurried trough their lunch and she was here at the designated training ground to clear some of her frustration.

"WHY IS LIFE SO DAMN HARD?" Temari loudly growled while unleashing a torrent of wind from her fan which destroyed everything in her path.

She wanted life to be simple… she wanted it to be progressive… she wanted it to be peaceful… but being a kunoichi she full well knew of her duties… duties towards her country and the Kazekage… that was what she had signed up when she had agreed to becoming a kunoichi… and thus she had to go through this even if her heart was against it… it was for her country… for her village… for the betterment of Sunagakure…

But it didn't stop the emotions she was feeling when she thought of him… of his reactions and his thoughts of her when she would go through with the plan… she couldn't deny it… as she had come to acknowledge it that he mattered a lot to her… her feelings for her had gone beyond that of friendship…

…_Elsewhere…_

"**Katon: Karyūdan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet)!**" Kurotsuchi called out as she exhaled a hot flame breath from her mouth which burned down everything in the path of the flame breath.

"Hnn… looks like… hn… I got a good grip on this one too…" she said in between taking huge breaths as she was by now really exhausted by the amount of training she had done.

"It certainly seems so… so do yourself a favor and rest for some time… you will need energy to continue with your training", said Akatsuchi from his spot beneath a tree where he was taking a rest from the training.

"No… rest is not an option… I need to get those jutsus and combos down perfectly to stand a chance against him… or the least get to surprise him", Kurotsuchi replied.

"So you agree that he is out of our league… or even of all those that participated in the exams", said Akatsuchi… that had been a major topic of their discussion considering he was someone that the Tsuchikage had asked to keep an eye upon for reason he didn't divulge.

"Yes…" she hated that answer coming out of her lips, but she couldn't deny the fact… for that very reason she had divulged into the use of Katon jutsus… something she had previously not given much importance to even after her Kekkei Genkai gave her advantage in learning Katon jutsus… considering her Doton jutsus were going to be useless against someone who used Raiton ninjutsu on that level.

"There is more to the training than just trying to win against him… more than showing that the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage is superior to the others… isn't it?" asked Akatsuchi… he had know her long enough to know that what the world considered arrogance was her pride in her abilities and strength… and with pride had come her recognition of her limits and faults… and so seeing her try this hard to fight an opponent which was clearly superior to her, he knew something was up.

For the next few minutes Kurotsuchi didn't reply as she just stared at nothingness… and when she spoke there was determination filled in her voice, "it is like something in me doesn't want to lose to him… and even if I do lose I need him to understand that I am no pushover… I don't know why I am thinking this way…"

_FLASHBACK_

_She was silently enjoying her meal… not her favorite dish but still good enough on her taste buds… who could have thought that she would ever enjoying something like ramen… something with so much fats… but she was and this place definitely served the best ramen she could ever imagine to taste…_

"_YO… AYAME-CHAN, OLD MAN TEUCHI… RAMEN TIME!"_

_A loud shout from next to her stopped from blissfully enjoying her ramen and by the tone and words the person next to her seemed a good acquaintance of the ramen chefs… someone from Konoha… but for some reason she seemed to recognize the voice… whom it belonged too she couldn't pinpoint._

"_Coming up Naruto-san", the soft voice of the waitress collided with her ears which stopped her from eating any further._

_Naruto was certainly not a common name… actually she had only ones heard it in her life time and the other time being just recently. The first she time she heard of someone of the name Naruto was the dead son of the Yondaime Hokage and the other one she recently heard was the ronin participating in this Chuunin Selection Exams._

_So imagine her surprise when she turned around to find that the person sitting next to her was the same ronin from the exams… and to her annoyance he to noticed her._

"_Yo! Fancy seeing the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage here" he said as it looked at her with a cheeky grin… something about that grin just irritated her._

"_And pray tell me why the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage can't enjoy a normal, peaceful meal?" she asked to him in annoyed tone._

"_Indeed she can… but I don't think you are the type who normally eats and enjoys her ramen…" he replied back with that same cheeky grin still plastered on his face._

_At first she wanted nothing of this conversation and go onto enjoy this wonderfully made ramen… especially after knowing of his character to be that of an open pervert and the stunt he pulled at the end of the preliminary on the Suna-kunoichi… but she at the same time also remembered that they were to gather information on the ronin… _

_So with a heavy heart she spoke, "yes I am not a huge fan of ramen and normally don't bother with it, but the ramen served here is certainly good and I am enjoying it."_

"_BLASPHEMY! YOU CALL THAT ENJOYING RAMEN!"_

_His shout made her jump of her seat in shock and horror… what the hell had she done to make him respond in such a way… but before she could say anything he stood in front of her with what could be only called a genjutsu… his entire body seemed to be glowing with an ethereal glow, and there were hundreds of hands on him… one hand holding a pair of chopsticks and the other a bowl of ramen… such was the sequence with the hundred hands._

"_You girl… You know not of the way of enjoying your ramen…"_

_There also was an ethereal edge to his voice…_

"_For that reason I Uzumaki Naruto – the Tetsujin (philosopher, sage, wise man) of_ _the Ramen Kingdom has descended to earth to teach a beautiful maiden like you of the ways of enjoying the food of the Gods!"_

_For the first time in life she was embarrassed… a crowd on lookers had gathered looking at the scene and some seemed to worshiping him to… try she might she couldn't leave… and thus begin her never-ending journey to the world of ramen._

_END FLASHBACK_

"… I just do", she completed her sentence after some time as she reviewed that day in her mind… it would be a lie for her to say that she had not enjoyed that time.

…_Elsewhere…_

He could feel it, the impending doom around him… but being the awesome Uzumaki Naruto that he was he stood his ground unafraid of the coming pa-fun ride.

Unsealing the chokutō he readied himself for the pa-fun ride that was going to be unleashed on him by his clones and the traps they had set all around the training ground… this was a tor-training for his reflex action and dodging abilities that the Old Man had come up with… a through and through torture session in his opinion but the Old Man insisted it to be the best training method… and it really was the best one if one discounted the pain he went through during the training.

A wheezing sound caught his ears… the sound of shurikens and kunais sailing through the air… which indicated that the pa-fun ride was on… simply stepping a few steps to his left he let a dozens of kunais and shurikens sail past through him and extended his senses to get a know of the other following weapons that were going to flung by the traps towards him.

For the next fifteen minutes he kept on dodging and parrying… dodging for the most part… the projectiles making his way from all directions. With each passing minute the difficulty of the course kept on increasing and he had to use more of the chokutō to parry the incoming projectiles.

But the next volley of shurikens and kunais that made his way towards him made his eyes grow in horror… there were tell-tale signs of a Futon jutsu enhancing their speed and destructive power… possibly **Fūton: Reppūshō**…

'What the hell is my clone thinking?' he couldn't help but think as he brought forth his chokutō parrying each and every one of the projectiles… these were the ones that had come closest to hurting him.

But he didn't have much time to think any further as another volley of projectiles were set free and were also enhanced by a Futon jutsu… and so it continued for the next five minutes not even giving him even a moment to say a thing.

But what happened next clicked off the patience switch within Naruto… those idiotic clones of his had somehow come up with brilliant ideas of new torture and were firing jutsus after jutsus towards him… luckily they were low-level ones which he could dodge or block with a jutsu of his own.

They were all going to die… a slow and painful and torturous death… he was going to see to it… he didn't care if they were just clones… his clones to precise… and he would be receiving their memories… hell with that.

And that was when his eyes caught the sight of the first of his clones… the first that was going to be subjected to the slow, painful, torturous death… but before he could move in for the kill his eyes widen in fear at the jutsu the clone was about to use… channeling a huge amount of lightning chakra into the chokutō he thrust it forward in the direction of the incoming concentrated, destructive blast of lightning…

"**Haran Raimei (Turbulent Thunder)!**" he roared…

A powerful lightning barrier met the incoming concentrated, destructive blast of lightning… the two powerful jutsus fighting to overpower each other… but being of the same element and both were formed from highly concentrated lightning… the two nullified each other.

When the clash of the jutsus died down the clone saw a sight that would haunt him forever if he were real… there standing amidst the destruction caused by the two jutsus was Uzumaki Naruto with **Shippuu Jinrai** active… glowing pale white and surrounded by the coat of ethereal white lightning… but that wasn't all as he had a look of pure anger… and it was further characterized by his iris which normally turned white were now blood red… and also there was a small amount of red lightning circulating through the lightning coat indication his anger.

If it wasn't for the barrier, the entire of Konoha would have heard the painful, tortured, pleading screams of the clones of Uzumaki Naruto as the real went on a rampage.

…_The Next Day…_

He stood there by the edge of the small bridge that was built over one of the rivers flowing through Konoha waiting for Haku and Konan to meet with him.

Somehow, someway that he just couldn't figure out, Haku and Konan had become good friends with the Konoha-kunoichis that had participated in the Chuunin Selection Exams or more specific with the ones that had caught him red handed at the onsen… was it girl thing… or as the Old Man said a small link or an incident that brought them together… It seemed more leaning to the latter one…

Currently waiting for the two he felt a powerful chakra signature close by… and it seemed whoever that chakra signature belonged to that person was trying to suppress his chakra… and normally he wouldn't bother with the suppress chakra signature around him considering this to be a ninja village… but this shinobi he couldn't ignore as he heard faint perverse giggling sounds… so he focused on the Natural Energy around him to get to know the perfect location of the hiding shinobi and finding the location he decided to see who it was.

He had an urge to smack his head on something when his eyes landed on the hidden shinobi… he should have come to the conclusion even before seeing the person or sensing his chakra that such a perverse giggling belonged to only one man… the man being Jiraiya of the Sannin… and it seemed he was currently enjoying some beautiful view through his telescope which was causing those perverse giggles.

Well he certainly wasn't going to miss a chance like this and by the looks of it neither Konan nor Haku were close by… though he decided to keep his senses on high alert so he could react in moment of incoming danger. His eyes then locked onto the direction that the pervert was looking through his telescope with the help of his binoculars…

'No wonder he is the writer of Icha-Icha' Naruto couldn't help but think… the sight that he was seeing through the binocular was something that was forever going to be etched in his memories… there beneath a waterfall were dozens of girls around the age of 18-24 all enjoying a fun bath beneath the waterfalls and almost all of them were beauties to watch out.

"Loving the show gaki", Jiraiya spoke up after a while… he had already sensed Naruto next to him for a while.

"You rock Ero-Sennin!" Naruto exclaimed.

A tick mark grew on Jiraiya's words… or rather that single last word… a nickname of sorts to him… so he spoke, "Stop calling me _Ero-Sennin_, gaki."

"Eh! Why?" asked a completely confused Naruto… he believed that to be an awesome name to the man, the legend.

"Why…! Because brat that feels like an insult…" Jiraiya said… but the words died in his mouth when the word 'insult' left his mouth as Naruto suddenly spoke up as if he was insulted.

"INSULT! The nickname Ero-Sennin is not an insult to you rather it is a title to your awesomness, to you manliness", Naruto proclaimed.

"How so?" Jiraiya couldn't help but ask… the way the boy spoke it, he knew that he meant it.

"Ero-Sennin means the sage of perverts… and you the writer of Icha-Icha series are the God to the perverts who cannot be as daring as us", answered Naruto.

For the first time in his life Jiraiya felt honored… he felt like his years of hard work had finally paid off… not even being called the Sannin had this much effect on him… also it further clarified any doubts he had for making the boy his successor of Icha-Icha… though he shuddered to think what would happen to him when Kushina, Tsunade and Minato would learn of this.

But before their conversation could go any further, Jiraiya saw a look of alarm cross Naruto's features as if his death was close…

"Got to go Ero-Sennin!" Naruto said as he sensed the chakra signatures of the two coming close to the designated meeting spot.

"Ok… but meet me tomorrow at Training Ground 3", Jiraiya said… he too sensed the coming of some of familiar people close by.

"Uh… sure", Naruto said and with a **Shunshin** disappeared of his place.

Appearing back at the meeting spot before they could arrive, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief… but the next sight again caught his breath… seriously what was with those two as they had decided to bring along with them Ran, Hinata, Ino and Tenten… all were wearing kimonos as if ready to go to a party/festival… and add to it that they all looked quite stunning in the kimonos.

"What's with all of you in kimonos? And it's not like I mind… on the contrary I LOVE it… you all are looking quite stunning and beautiful", Naruto couldn't help but say as his eyes travelled from one girl to another… he just couldn't help it until a paper shurikens impacted on him.

"Stop staring you pervert", Konan shouted with her face being red… it was not just her face that was red, the faces of the other girls were red too.

"You really should start behaving yourself Naruto-sama… or would you love to have us reinforce the punishment from that day…" said Haku in a sing-song voice sending shivers down the spine of Naruto… that punishment was still giving him nightmares.

"And we would be happy to reinforce more punishment… because I HATE perverts… also Tsunade-baa-chan and kaa-chan have taught me some effective ways of dealing with perverts", said Ran as she brought out a kunai from within her sleeves… that action was followed by Tenten as the girl now had a horde of weapons for her to use from one of the scrolls she had carried on her.

'Oi! Oi! What's with them? Do they really love to see a tortured-beaten Naruto…?' Naruto couldn't help but think… even Haku had brought out her senbons and Konan had her papers ready… only Hinata and Ino didn't seem a part of this…

"I assure you I am not looking at you in any perverse sense… I am just admiring the six of you dressed in kimonos… and I swear I have not a single perverse thought in my mind at this moment", answered Naruto… it was the truth to be told, the six looked really good… and it seemed like it was the right thing to say as the girls seemed visibly relaxed… though the red glow on their faces was not something he had expected.

"So what's with all of you wearing kimonos?" Naruto asked seeing that he better change the topic since they had relaxed a bit… and it was certainly a good idea.

"Don't you know?" Ino asked.

"Know what?" Naruto asked back with a confused look… did he miss something.

"You don't know what today is?" asked Haku.

"Umm… no…" Naruto replied still confused… what was he supposed to know.

"You seriously don't…?" asked Konan in a tone of innocence.

Naruto shook his head in a negative response… he seriously didn't have a clue… but for some reason the twinkling in the eyes of Haku and Konan was starting to grate on his nerves… it was as if the two were looking down on him.

"A-Ano Naruto-san… today is the festival of the founding day of Konoha", said Hinata.

"The seventy-fifth year to be precise", added Ran.

Now it clicked him… all the commotion he had seen around for the past couple of days… the jovial mood of the citizens of Konoha… it was the festival for the founding day of Konoha… and from what the Old Man had told and Ran informed it had been seventy-five years since the founding of Konoha.

"Oh! I See!" answered Naruto…

"So… that answers you all dressed in kimonos… but it still doesn't answer why you all are here and not back in the village enjoying the festival", spoke Naruto after a couple of seconds… he was really confused about that one.

"Umm… that is… the festival has yet to start… and weren't we supposed to meet here…" Konan replied.

"Eh! Right…!" Naruto replied… the way Konan spoke was clear to him that she certainly wasn't being honest while answering his question… but he was never the one to push her for answers, especially when she seemed really not wanting to answer.

"And also both Konan-san and I… and the others too… we would all love if you come and join the festival with us", said Haku… she and Konan were aware of his dislike of crowds, or rather his fear of them… and even if he had come a long way from the young child who was feared for his abilities and also feared of hurting others, something like festivals were still a no-go for him.

Under normal circumstances Naruto would try to find a way to avoid festivities and such occasions where he would let his emotions be the control of him… even if he had long since learned to control the white lightning ability of his… the fear still was there… but this was a special occasion… a festival to celebrate the day of the founding of Konohagakure no Sato… and it would be more special considering it to be the seventy-fifth year… the village that was born through the dreams and works of Senju Hashirama… and so…

"Ok… I guess…" replied Naruto… though he still sounded a bit unsure.

The Konoha-kunoichis couldn't help but wonder why both Konan and Haku suddenly looked so jovial, so happy… it was as if they had just succeeded in something that they had been working for years… the joy on their face showed no bounds…

"LET'S GO!" both Konan and Haku shouted together as they grabbed onto one of the arms of Naruto and dragged him towards the village… living in their wake the confused Konoha-kunoichis who quickly followed them.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**Many of you readers would want to question me of bringing Konan and Haku in the story… why had taken such a drastic step? It's simple really… I had all this planned already as I always felt the two characters from manga who had a great scope were those two… and apart of Haku giving Naruto a reason and belief to make his own path of a ninja and Konan believing in his path, those two had nothing in the story… especially Konan who was wasted as a part of Akatsuki and partner of Nagato… Nagato certainly didn't need a partner… and so they were a part of my story… it also helps that they are good looking too.**

**As for Konan there will be a small back-story of her… though I am not going to give any spoilers now… as for personality, it is shown in both manga and anime that she had a bright, compassionate, and cheerful personality as a child and the times they trained with Jiraiya and it was the battles and the death of Yahiko that changed her.**

**For the 4 Kekkei Genkai Naruto possesses:**

**1 – Unnamed **_**Kekkei Genkai**_**: has the ability to let the body draw in Natural Energy**

**2 – Iyahi-tai (Healing Body) – Chiton (Heal release)**

**3 – Ranton (Storm Release)**

**4 - ?**

**Unnamed Kekkei Genkai – sensory abilities, helps to enhance the power of his nin-tai-gen jutsu, physical strength, speed, and stamina, reflexes, durability and perception ability. **

**The ability is similar to those trained in the art of Senjutsu to achieve the Sage Mode… though his current prowess over his not as great as one whom have achieved the Sage Mode… and has no additional ability gained like those trained by the animals.**

**Iyahi-tai (Healing Body)**_** – **_**Chiton (Heal release) – as the name suggest… Naruto's body has the ability to produce healing chakra on its own and heal any wound he receives instinctively… making him immune to most poisons, wounds, cuts, burns, etc. and by concentrating can heal major wounds too… also helps in use of Iryō (Medical) ninjutsu with relative use… Chiton written with the first kanji of the word Chiyu (healing).**

**Ranton (Storm release) – the advanced nature Kekkei Genkai which combines lightning and water based chakra to create energy beams…**

**Also as mentioned in chapter 1, Ranton will have a special ability… but what it would be that you will have to wait and read.**

**Things To Take Note Of: **

**The First Summoning tale, the Punishment of Naruto's tale and the Konoha Founding Festival tale will be written as omakes later on… either at the end of some chapter or as a whole new chapter… so don't be surprised if it won't be a part of the next chapter.**

**Suggestions:**

**The three of the four Kekkei Genkai have been decided and that leaves a spot for one… and even though I have a fairly good idea of what I would love it to be I am still for suggestions… and for those that might suggest of an advanced nature Kekkei Genkai, remember that Naruto has an affinity to lightning, water and wind nature chakra… also Jinton (Swift Release), Sharingan and Byakugan are not in the options… and also give a good explanation if you come up with a new Kekkei Genkai or of the anime/manga you came to that idea from… and if you suggestion trumps that of mine by logic and usage I will use it.**


End file.
